GEORGE and his mother lived in a couple of rooms in a busy section of the big city. They were poor but very happy together until one day they were told that the house in which they lived was to be sold, and they would have to move. And so the poor mother began her weary round of going about from place to place, trying to find rooms where they could live. But over and over again she was asked, “Do you have any children?” When she replied that she had one boy, she would receive the same answer, “Sorry, no children allowed here.”
So the days passed away and the time was drawing very near when George and his mother would have to move out. Still nothing was found.
One day, George came home from school and found his mother in tears. She was sad and worried and didn’t know what to do. George thought things over in his mind and soon decided what he would do.
The next morning his mother went off to work and George got ready for school as usual. But before going out, he wrote a note to his mother and left it on the kitchen table. It read: “Dear Mother: I’m going away from home, not because I don’t love you, but because you can’t find a place to live while you have me. I’ll come back to you when I’m grown up, and I’ll work hard and we’ll have a nice house to live in. Love, George.”
Then little George started out. But he didn’t get very far. In crossing a busy street, he was knocked down by a car and seriously injured. They took him to the hospital and called his mother. She came hurrying to his side, but George, was so badly hurt that he was dying.
Just before he died, he said, “Mother, I’m going to the best Home of all —a home where they never say, ‘No children allowed,’ because Jesus said: " ‘Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not.’ " Mark 10:1414But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:14).
There’s a Friend for little children,
Above the bright blue sky—
A Friend who never changes,
Whose love can never die.
Unlike our friends by nature,
Who change with changing years,
This Friend is always worthy
The precious name He bears.
There’s a home for little children,
Above the bright blue sky;
Where Jesus reigns in glory,
A home of peace and joy.
No home on earth is like it,
Or can with it compare;
For every one is happy,
Nor could be happier there.
ML-01/05/1969