With his mouth watering Paul watched his mother carefully remove two luscious-looking lemon meringue pies from the oven and set them gently on the kitchen table.
“Now, Paul,” she warned, “I don’t want you to touch these pies. They’re for dinner tomorrow.”
Paul promised that he would leave the pies alone. But this was a hard promise for a five-year-old boy to make, especially a boy who loved meringue topping! He could hardly wait for the next day to come when they finally could eat the pies. Meanwhile, he tried his best to forget about them.
On his way to bed that night, Paul had to go through the kitchen. There on the table sat the pies, fluffy and golden brown on top. The temptation was too hard to resist. Paul glanced cautiously around the room... no one was in sight. He just had to taste that lemon meringue pie.
Tiptoeing over to the kitchen table, he reached out one small finger and scooped off a big gob of meringue. Oh, it tasted soooo delicious! But now, what should he do about that big hole he had left in the meringue on top of the pie? His mother would be sure to notice it in the morning. Paul got an idea... if he ate all the meringue his mother might think she had forgotten to put any on! So that is what he did—he ate the toppings off both of those big, delicious lemon meringue pies! Feeling rather guilty and very full, he went to bed.
In the morning Paul woke up and right away remembered what he had done the night before. He wondered if his mother would know. Then he heard voices in the kitchen. His mother and father were talking about pies—the lemon meringue pies that he had half-eaten the night before. His heart was pounding furiously; any minute they would come in his room to ask him about them. He wondered what he should do.
Climbing out of bed, Paul slowly made his way into the kitchen, his knees trembling. His parents turned to face him.
“Paul!” his mother exclaimed. “Did you eat the meringue off those pies?”
“Yes,” Paul mumbled with his head down. There was nothing else he truthfully could say. He felt miserable. He knew that he had disobeyed and that he deserved to be punished.
There is good news, though. God also said, “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them [his sins] shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:1313He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. (Proverbs 28:13). God can show mercy to you and me if we confess to Him that we are sinners and accept His gift of salvation. This gift can be given to us because God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was punished for sinners.
Paul’s mother was very unhappy about the pies. They were expecting company for dinner that evening, and her beautiful lemon meringue pies were ruined! She had to start all over to make new meringue as quickly as she could.
Even though Paul had disobeyed his parents, they had mercy on him and forgave him. He even got a piece of lemon meringue pie at dinner.
ML-08/26/1984