A child named Timmy shared quite a story with me at church this past Sunday. This little boy is only about six years old but he wanted to tell me all about what happened to him and his eight dollars. "That's a lot of money for a little boy your age," I said. He nodded vigorously -- apparently, (and I learned this from his daddy), Timmy had done a number of extra chores around the house to earn that much money. "Well what did you do with those eight dollars?" I asked.
It took a while for Timmy to tell me all the details, but his daddy, kneeling alongside him, helped him a bit. It began that past weekend when his parents took him to the store to pick out something he had been wanting to purchase with his hard-earned cash. When Timmy got the item and they arrived at the checkout counter, his daddy said, "Well, Tim, let the lady have your money," but when the little boy pushed his hands in his pockets, the bills weren't there. He frantically searched all his pockets -- the eight dollars were gone! He must've dropped the bills somewhere in the store, because he had it when they left the house. But a further search turned up nothing.
But this is where the story got interesting. Timmy was so excited to tell me that when they got to their car in the parking lot, there was a note tucked under the windshield wiper. "Read this," the note said. His daddy unfolded it and there were the eight dollars, along with the handwritten words: "If these eight dollars is yours, then what was lost has now been found. But if it's not yours, then please give it to the wheelchair ministry on your back bumper sticker." Everyone laughed -- they couldn't believe it. Some generous soul there on the parking lot earlier on -- probably a Christian -- found the wadded up bills, probably near the car; they must have fallen out of Timmy's pocket when he got out to go into the store. But the anonymous good Samaritan wanted to make certain that if the money didn't belong to the people in the car, that they should give it to "your wheelchair ministry," Timmy piped up, "we have your bumper sticker on the back of our car."
Needless to say, that little boy able-bodied boy not only got the item he had been saving up for, but now his next focus, he tells me, is going to be on helping Wheels for the World, which actually is helping a lot of kids in different parts of the world... boys who just happen to have a disability. Oh, I told Timmy that not only was that note under the windshield written for him, but a very special Bible verse was written for him, too: Philippians chapter 2 says that we should learn to look out for the interests of others... it's something this little six-year-old boy is excited about, because now his love and caring compassion is thicker, a whole lot thicker, than a bumper sticker.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
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