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 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 Christmas and it didn't cost him a cent. And some day I'm
gonna give you one just like it... then you can see for yourself all
the pretty things in the Christmas windows that I've been trying to
tell you about."
Paul
got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The
shingled-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of
them began a memorable holiday ride.
That
Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he had said,
"It's more blessed to give...."
Author
Unknown
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