This Christmas, five of my kids are getting quilts from me to hand off. For a moment in time they will hold them, just long enough for a whiff of affection to rub off like the scent a rescue dog depends on. Then they will give them to people they care about. 

I couldn't be happier. 

It matters little that I do not know much about the recipients. Some I have never spoken to. But the chance to offer my child a way to be generous is ridiculously fun. 

There is a distant memory of my mother inviting me to sign the tag on a present to my sister. I did nothing to purchase it, or wrap it in shiny paper. But she offered me the illusion that I was a giver. It was a start.

Probably there is no way to spring from egocentricity to altruism without incremental steps in between. Most mothers have been blessed by an offering from their toddler, who wanted to share their sandwich. The one mom made to begin with. 

But it lights a spark of generosity, and can be fanned over time by shopping for a birthday using dad's credit card, or hosting a party with the contents of the parents' fridge. 

Even we grown-ups, the ones who have auto-pay on our bills and file our own taxes, are part of the relay. 

"God loves each and every human being; and because He cannot do good to them directly, but only indirectly by means of other people, He therefore breathes into people His love."

 Emanuel Swedenborg, True Christian Religion 457