By: James Neuhouser
Christmas is gone. The candy has been eaten, the Chex Mix, and only two Lebkuchen cookies left. Three of our four were home and many grandkids. Our daughter came from Atlanta and stayed nearly a week. It was capped off the day after Christmas by a package on the porch.
It was about a cubic foot, quite heavy, and had the return address of a business I didn’t recognize. My daughter opened it with caution. It was a set, seven volumes, of grades one through six of McGuffey Readers. It had a note inside. It was a gift from my son’s high school friend, which he has’t seen since high school.
I had mentioned, tongue-in-cheek, in an article that I always wanted a full set of McGuffey Readers. There are some people keeping in touch with their hometown through the local paper. In honor of Duane, I would like to relay a story from 1879.
A story so short it is scarce worth the telling. But it has a great moral and perhaps two. A story offered to fourth graders in a different time. It makes me want to study all the stories in the Bible Jesus told and extract the moral of each.
One day the Jewish elders were working on the garment for the high priest. They needed some diamonds to add to the ephod of his garment, so they sought out a well respected jeweler, and offered him a fair price for the jewels they needed. He told them he cannot sell them now, and that they should return in the afternoon.
However they needed them now. They offered him twice what they were worth and he still would not sell. They believed he was holding out for a higher price, so they offered him three times what the fair price would be, and he still would not sell. A few hours later he went to them and placed the jewels before them, at which time they offered him the final price they had offered him before.
However he would not take that price. He would only take the fair price that had been offered him in the beginning. Then why is it you would not sell us the diamonds when we were there in the first place. You see my father was sleeping, and he had the key. I would not for all the gold in the world deprive him of a single minute of sleep. At his age I would not be willing to take from him a single comfort.
At this the elders placed their hands up on his head and said, “You shall be blessed by Him who said, honor thy father and mother.One day your children will pay you the same respect that you have to your father.”
At my age, I can think of things I could have done for my parents which I didn’t think of when I was young. Was I like the Pharisees, the keepers of the law, who said, “What we would have given to you (our parents,) we have given unto God.” Perhaps time invested is worth more than all of gold in the world. Are we spending time in church rather than visiting, or taking the gospel to someone that needs it. Thanks, Duane wherever you are.
PS… The diamond shown is offered for sale at over $66,000. Quite a few widows mites.
