A friend of mine named Paul received an automobile from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. “Is this your car, Mister?” he asked.
Paul nodded. “My brother gave it to me for Christmas.”
The boy was astounded. “You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn’t cost you anything? Boy, I wish…” He hesitated.
Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the boy said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels.
“I wish,” the boy continued, “that I could be a brother like that.”
Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, and then impulsively added, “Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?”
“Oh Yes, I would love that.”
After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, “Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?”
Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the boy wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile. But Paul was wrong again.
“Will you stop where those two steps are?” the boy asked.
He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom stem, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.
“There she is, Buddy, just like I told you up stairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn’t cost him a cent. And some day I am going to give you one just like it… then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Christmas windows what I have been trying to tell you about.”
Paul got out and lifted the disabled boy to the front seat of his car. The shinning- eyed older brother climbed in beside him and three of them began memorable holiday ride.
That Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he had said: “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20: 35)
(This is not fiction. It is a true story.)
Source:- Chicken soup for the soul
No comments:
Post a Comment