{"id":5544,"date":"2026-06-30T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2026-06-30T10:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:00:16","slug":"a-gift-like-no-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/a-gift-like-no-other\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gift Like No Other"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast<\/em>,\u00a0click here<\/a>

What if you\u2019re offered a gift that seems too good to be true?\u00a0

In 1835, an eccentric British chemist died and left his entire inheritance to America.

By all accounts, James Smithson was a bit odd.\u00a0\u00a0

He was the illegitimate child of the Duke of Northumberland.\u00a0He never learned his true birthday.\u00a0His mother brought him into the world in an abbey in Paris, apparently to stay out of public view.\u00a0\u00a0

Going against the flow of a culture that had little regard for children of dubious origin, Smithson became a renowned mineralogist.\u00a0He never married or fathered children.

His left his fortune to his nephew on the condition that he produce heirs.\u00a0When his nephew died, also fatherless, Smithson’s will stipulated that his legacy (approximately half a million dollars, the equivalent of $12 million today) be gifted to the government of the United States.\u00a0

This was something of a surprise, since Smithson had never visited America.\u00a0

The gift was accompanied by a single guiding sentence.\u00a0It should be used to “increase the diffusion of knowledge among men.”

The movers and shakers in Washington were immediately suspicious.\u00a0Why in the world would a British citizen send his fortune across the Atlantic?\u00a0\u00a0

No one in Washington could fail to recall that the British had burned down America’s capital just 20 years earlier during the War of 1812.\u00a0President Andrew Jackson recommended declining the gift.\u00a0He could hardly forget fighting the British in the Battle of New Orleans.\u00a0\u00a0

It was also widely known that Smithson’s half-brother, Hugh Percy, the legitimate son of the Duke of Northumberland, had led British troops against the American colonies during the earliest days of the Revolution.\u00a0He had tried to prevent our country’s independence.\u00a0And now his brother was offering us a gift?\u00a0Was this some kind of Trojan Horse?\u00a0\u00a0

South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun declared that it was “beneath the dignity of the United States to receive presents of this kind,” and many Americans agreed with him.

But one American leader offered a different response.

Former president John Quincy Adams, now a congressman from Massachusetts, had always believed in\u00a0governmental support of the arts and sciences.\u00a0He said the country had “an imperious and indispensable obligation” to take the money and put it to good use.

What do you do if you’re offered a gift that seems too good to be true?

First, you say thank-you.\u00a0Then you do everything you can to turn that gift into a gift for others.

That’s not to say it was easy for Adams.\u00a0After Congress decided to receive Smithson’s money, its leaders bickered for 10 years trying to figure out what to do with it.\u00a0Some suggested the founding of a national university.\u00a0Others wanted a botanical garden or celestial observatory.\u00a0

While the debate wore on, several shady elected officials grabbed most of the money and invested it in what turned out to be a fraudulent real estate deal in Arkansas.\u00a0Adams was furious. He demanded that the Treasury pay back every penny, with interest.\u00a0It did.

And you thought Congressional misbehavior was a recent development.

Finally, in 1846, James Smithson’s gift was put to use.\u00a0It funded what became known as the Smithsonian Institution.\u00a0

No one doubts that the Smithsonian has become one of America’s enduring treasures.\u00a0“The Nation’s Attic,” as it’s known, now includes 19 museums that hold 154 million items, nine research centers, and a zoo.\u00a0They’re spread across Washington D.C., seven states, and the nation of Panama.\u00a0

Every year, 30 million people walk through the doors of the Smithsonian.\u00a0Three weeks ago in Washington D.C., my grandson Marco and I were two of them. There is no admission fee, all because a curious chemist gave a gift that has grown almost miraculously.\u00a0

But first that gift had to be received.\u00a0And then turned into a gift for the rest of the world.\u00a0 \u00a0

What do you do if God offers you a gift that seems too good to be true?\u00a0

First, you say thank-you.\u00a0

There is no gift like God’s grace.\u00a0It is his lavish, unconditional, absolutely undeserved posture of love and kindness toward you and me.\u00a0It cannot be earned.\u00a0It cannot be deserved.\u00a0It cannot be reasoned away, because, quite frankly, God relentlessly offers it.

All we can do with the gift of God’s grace is receive it.\u00a0And then, with God’s help, we do everything we can to transform that gift into a blessing for others.

On our 250th<\/sup> birthday this weekend, Americans have a lot to think about.\u00a0We have received from God extraordinary provisions of freedom and natural resources \u2013 gifts that surpass anything known in human history.\u00a0What shall we do with this unprecedented liberty and opportunity?

First, we say thank-you.\u00a0We thank the Giver who has “shed his grace” on America, even if, far too often, we have taken his grace for granted.

Then we resolve that God\u2019s gifts are not, in the end, about us.\u00a0They’ve come to us because they’re on their way to the next generation, and on their way to the rest of the world.\u00a0\u00a0

The very best gifts are not too good to be true.\u00a0\u00a0

It’s truer to say they’re too good not to be shared.\u00a0\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here What if you\u2019re offered a gift that seems too good to be true?\u00a0 In 1835, an eccentric British chemist died and left his entire inheritance to America. By all accounts, James Smithson was a bit odd.\u00a0\u00a0 He was the illegitimate child of the Duke of Northumberland.\u00a0He never learned his true birthday.\u00a0His… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101,1139,1140],"class_list":["post-5544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-grace","tag-smithsonian","tag-us-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5546,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5544\/revisions\/5546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}