What is offered from a generous heart should be accepted generously.
-Alexandre Dumas

I thought of this quote from Dumas when I read the story of a homeless man in New York who was given $100 boots by a policeman and still went around barefoot.

“Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money,” Mr. Hillman said in an interview on Broadway in the 70s. “I could lose my life.”

Sometimes, you just can’t help people.

“I was put on YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I get?  This went around the world, and I want a piece of the pie.”

A generous gift was given, apparently from a generous heart.  People wanted to tell the story to encourage more generosity.  Most people would think that free boots is “a piece of the pie.”  But if a generous gift is not accepted generously, you may still have cold feet.

For ye have the poor always with you.
-Jesus Christ (Matthew 26:11)

There will always be people who are poor because of tragedies or injustice.  And there are people who will always have cold feet because of the decisions they continue to make.

II Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

There will always be those who have the spiritual equivalent of cold feet, for they will not receive the gift which was given.  Spiritual poverty will be with us always.