We sometimes feel as if we have everything figured out, even before we hear all sides of the story. It’s a matter of judging a book by its cover and it can be a very dangerous way to live. It can also be uncomfortable whenever it happens to us, but fortunately, not everybody lives that way. In the following fictional story, you get to hear about a young man who had a new car and thought he had a stranger figured out. Little did he know that the stranger would teach him a lesson that day he would not soon forget.
A friend of mine named Paul received an automobile from his brother as a birthday present. The next day 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 my birthday.” The boy was astounded. “You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn’t cost you nothing? 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 lad said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels.
“I wish,” the boy went on, “that I could be a brother like that.”
Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added,
“Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?”
“Oh yes, I’d 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 lad 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 step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.
“There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for his birthday and it didn’t cost him a cent. And someday I’m gonna give you one just like it … then you can see for yourself all the pretty things that I’ve been trying to tell you about.”
Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The shining eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride.
That day, Paul learned what “It is more blessed to give” meant.
