A young American airman told the story of how in World War 2 he was shot down over a Japanese airfield somewhere in the Pacific.
Bailing out in his parachute he dropped to the ground, breaking his arm and leg in the fall. There he lay helpless while they took him prisoner.
For some weeks he was in the prison hospital with his arm and leg in casts.
One morning he saw a Japanese soldier’s face in the window of his room, staring at him. Thinking he was up to no good, he had the orderly close the window. But the next day he saw the same man standing in the doorway with his hands behind his back. A moment later and he was standing beside his bed.
After that seemed a long time, his left hand shot out suddenly, and he dropped a clean towel on the bed with two bars of soap. “Hide them,” he said, and left the room. The next day, and for many more days after, during his stay there, his Japanese friend brought him things to eat. One day he asked him why he was doing all this for him. (He was then the only American prisoner-of-war in the hospital.) In broken English the Japanese soldier said: “When I was just a little boy years ago in Japan, I received a beautiful doll from some unknown boy or girl in America. It made a great impression on me. Later, I became a Christian and became a member of a Christian congregation. When I heard that an American was in the hospital, I looked into your room, and seeing you did not have a clean towel or soap, I thought I might repay the kindness of that unknown American boy or girl who sent me the doll by bringing you a clean towel and soap. I brought you the extra things to eat because I thought in this way I might practice my Christianity.”
“God loveth a cheerful giver.”
ML-04/08/1979