Dear Children,
This letter will be a bit different from my other letters, because what I am going to write to you about took place about seventy miles from here. Gramma and I read about this in our newspaper, and she said I should tell you this story. So here is what happened . . .
A man was taking $15,000 in a money bag to deposit at the local bank. On his way he stopped at a fast-food restaurant to have a hamburger and a cup of coffee. When he left the restaurant, he forgot to pick up the money bag that he had set down beside him!
Horrors! How could he possibly forget something like that! It’s hard to believe, but he did. When he went back and found it was gone, he said he felt like he was having a heart attack. When he told his wife, he kept saying, “There is no God; there is no God.” But his wife said to him, “It will be found!”
So what do you think happened to that bag of money? Now, don’t read the end of the letter to find the answer, because I want to tell you what happened.
Shortly after the man left the restaurant, three teenage boys went into the very same restaurant and sat in the very same seat where the man had sat. They saw this bag, picked it up and walked out to the parking lot, and then opened it up. They saw money! Lots of it!
Now, what will they do with it? Keep it? or give it back?
I have a question for each one of you right now. What would you have done with it? Be honest now.
Before I tell you what the boys did with all that money, let me tell you about four men in the Bible who had the terrible disease of leprosy and what happened to them. (I hope you’ll read this story for yourself in 2 Kings, chapter 7.) Nobody wanted anything to do with lepers because the disease can spread to others, and a person with the disease dies a very slow death.
The city where these four lepers lived was surrounded by their enemies, and the people in the city were slowly starving to death. But one day God told them that the very next day they would have lots of food to eat. However, the people did not believe Him. But what God says is always true, and that very night the Lord God made a noise so loud that the enemies who surrounded the city thought a great army was coming and that they all would be killed! So, in the darkness they all ran as fast as they could. They left everything behind so that they could run even faster.
Now these four leprous men were starving as well. The lepers said, Our enemies have lots and lots of food, and we’re dying of hunger. Maybe they will have mercy on us and give us food . . . or they may kill us. Either way, we are going to die.
So the lepers left the city. But to their great surprise, there were no enemy soldiers out there! God had chased them all away, just like He said He would! Now everything the enemy left behind was theirs!
The joyous lepers started to hide the money and to hide the food . . . until one of them said, This is wrong! All the people in the city are dying, and there is enough food here to feed everyone!
So the four lepers ran back into the city and told the king, The enemy is gone! There is lots of food out there that the enemy left behind! So the city and the people were saved!
“Okay, Grampa, we’ll read the story ourselves. Now, what about the boys and the bag of money?”
First of all, the three teenagers knew it was wrong to keep the money. I would like to think that they had learned from the Bible that God says, “Ye should do that which is honest” (2 Corinthians 13:77Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. (2 Corinthians 13:7)). They should give the money back to the owner.
So off to the police station the three boys went along with their parents. The true owner was found! The owner was so happy with the boys’ honesty that he hugged them and thanked them over and over. Then because of their honesty in returning the money, he gave each one of the boys a very large gift of money.
The owner was happy, the police were happy to meet three honest boys, and the parents were very happy that their sons had done what was right. Now then, maybe the owner who had said, “There is no God; there is no God,” changed his mind and was saying, “There is a God; there is a God!” I hope so. Don’t you?
As for Gramma and me, we got to thinking about a gift that God has given us, and it is priceless! All the money in the world cannot buy it! God has given this gift to us through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son! Listen to these words: “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). What a gift! Do each of you children have it?
Lots of love,
Grampa
P.S. Don’t forget to read 2 Kings, chapter 7.
ML-01/09/2005