By Rev. Larry W. Greiner
A
Chicago
businessman left his office one cold, blustery day. The snow, rain
and sleet almost blinded his eyes as the wind whipped fiercely about him.
Rolling up his collar he raced for his car. He stopped suddenly when
he saw huddled in the doorway of a store a young boy about ten years of
age. He was blue and shivering, and the man could see that the boy
had been crying.
"Son,
what's wrong?" the man asked.
"Nothing,
Mister. I'm all right."
But as
the man spoke kindly, the boy unfolded his story. "My father sent me
for some groceries. He gave me a twenty dollar bill with which to
buy them, but my hand was so cold the twenty dollar bill slipped from my
fingers. The money is lost, and I am afraid to go home."
The man
encouraged the boy to go home, telling him that his father would
understand. But the boy shook
his head. "You don't know my dad. He will be drunk and
will almost kill me. I'll have to wait until he goes to bed or
leaves the house."
The man
told the boy that he would help him, so he took him to the store and
bought the groceries. "Don't tell your father about this," the
man said. "He won't need to know that you lost the money."
The boy
thanked him sincerely, and then setting the groceries down on the counter,
he put his arms around the man's waist. Choking a bit, he said, "I
wish you was my daddy."
In
recounting the story, the man said, "I walked four more blocks that
night to see if I could find another boy who had lost some money."
What a
beautiful picture of grace! Christ came to purchase for us what we
could never buy—our salvation.
Now it is our privilege, joy and duty to deliver this free gift of
salvation to a shivering, frightened world, to place in their hands the
"Living Water" and the "Bread of Life."
In this
New Year may God give us hearts for thehurting and the lost.
"But
this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he
which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according
as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of
necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all
grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
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