“Patrick! Pat! Stop!” Bob’s excited voice caused Patrick to slow down, as he was cycling full speed toward the school. Bob rushed up to him waving an envelope in his hand. “Here are my first savings, a $10 bill! I simply must get rid of it as fast as possible, or I’m terribly afraid I’ll go and spend some.”
The two boys made their way into a blind alley, out of sight of passers by. Patrick took out his wallet and proudly placed Bob’s bill inside. “I have four like this already, you know; the first two from Charlie and Andrew, who have spent five afternoons on Mr. Berger’s cherry trees. The third John brought me: he has started giving Latin lessons. The fourth came from the sale of my microscope that one of the fellows bought at half price. The fifth comes from you. I’ll lock them all up in the cash box and tomorrow I shall take it to Philip.”
Neither Bob nor Patrick noticed a door slowly open close by, and a desperate gaze fixed on them. A glance at his watch and Patrick jumped on his bicycle; “Goodbye, Bob! I’ve two late marks already, so I have got to be off.”
=============================
“It’s rather strange, Patrick. Just think, I found the door open when I got home. Did you come back during the morning?” asked Carol.
“No; we left together this morning, and you were the one to lock up.”
“Well! Someone must have come in.”
“Think again, you couldn’t have closed the door properly, that’s all.”
“No, I remember quite well turning the key in the lock and putting it in the usual hiding place.”
Carol and Patrick went all over the apartment. Everything seemed to be in its usual place. Then, collecting their books for afternoon school, they prepared to go and eat at the nearby restaurant, but Patrick changed his mind. “If I take the cash box,” he thought, “I needn’t come back here, and can go straight up to Philip’s after school.”
He opened the drawer of his chest-of-drawers: the small box was gone! In its place was a scrap of crumpled paper, on which he read: “I’m sure you won’t refuse to help a chum in distress, and that you won’t be mean enough to betray me. J.O.S.” It was Cyril’s writing!
Utterly dismayed, Patrick stared into the open drawer. What could he do? If he spoke of the theft, he would betray Cyril. If he concealed it, he would be robbing his friends. Carol was calling him impatiently, and it was no use letting her suspect anything. Absorbed in her history book, turning the pages while she ate hurriedly, Carol did not notice that her brother was unable to swallow a mouthful. At school Patrick answered all the teacher’s questions with his mind a blank, getting a severe reprimand.
“If you start letting yourself go again, Demier, you need expect no leniency,” the German teacher snapped.
At four o’clock Patrick, more dead than alive, rushed out of school and mounted his bicycle. What was the use of going to Philip’s home now? But after riding awhile around town, perplexed and miserable, he suddenly found himself on the road to Fairfields. The balmy summer evening seemed to mock his wretchedness. How could the countryside look so radiant, the lake so calm, the swallows so intoxicatingly joyous, when the world contained so many cruel and unsolvable problems?
Philip was not at the farmhouse. Mrs. Berger pointed out the field where he was harvesting; with slow steps Patrick went toward him. Seeing the troubled look on the boy’s face, his welcoming smile faded. “What is it, Patrick? Bad news?”
Patrick could not at first utter a word. At last he stammered: “I ought to have brought you $50, but ... I haven’t got them now.”
“You’ve lost them?”
“No.”
“Spent them?”
“No.”
“Given them away?”
“No.”
“Then someone has taken them - do you guess who it is?”
No reply - ”Don’t you trust me, Patrick?” The boy’s reproachful look answered more eloquently than words.
“Well! I trust you. You have a weight on your mind of which you can’t tell me. I understand.”
Philip stopped the engine of his tractor, and the two sat down on the sun-baked furrow, where the mower had left rough grass and weeds. “If I can’t help you, Patrick, God can. He always comes to the help of His children.”
“I’d like to feel as you do, Philip, but I am not His child.”
“Don’t you want to become one of His family?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how.”
“It is very simple,” said Philip. “You have to ask the Lord Jesus to receive you; that is the only way to come to God.”
“Only that? Don’t I have to do anything for myself?”
“No, Patrick. Do you think that God would have sacrificed His only Son if there had been any other way to atone for our sins?”
“How do you come to Jesus? We can’t see Him.”
“Just tell Him that you need Him and His love and salvation. He has waited for you a long time.”
Patrick felt a great desire well up in his heart. The Savior who had redeemed Philip and Doctor Garnier must become his! He knew that they possessed happiness and assurance unknown to him, and which he wanted above everything. In every way they were much better than he. There rose before him all the evil thoughts of hate and rebellion which he had cherished for months.
“Philip, I’m not good like you; I am very wicked.”
“It is for those who need forgiveness that the Lord was crucified.” Philip took out his Bible that he always carried with him and read: “As many as received Him, to them gave He power (or right) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12)).
“What does it mean to receive Him?”
“It is to believe that He died on the cross, which you couldn’t do, neither could I; that He took away your sins which barred the way between you and God.”
Patrick sat nervously pulling up blades of grass and seeming to gaze into the depths of the earth. After a long silence he said in a low tone: “Philip, do you truly believe that God can love me like - a real father?”
“Much more than a real father; God is love, and His love never changes like that of men.”
“How can you be certain that He loves you personally, and is really interested in you?”
“Well, Patrick, I don’t know how to explain it. It is something the Lord Jesus made me realize when I opened my heart to Him. Go, just as you are to the Lord, and He will give you the same assurance.”
The two friends got up then; Philip went back to his tractor, and Patrick mounted his bicycle. No more words were spoken, but in parting each of them realized that a bond, stronger than anything earthly, was formed between them; a link that nothing, not even death, could break.
Patrick did not feel like going straight home. Too many thoughts were revolving in his brain. He would avoid the close heat of the streets for a while, for a quiet place in which to think was absolutely essential. He turned into a narrow footpath between two fields of wheat and followed it as far as a clump of trees. The silence and peace of nature were exactly what he needed.
Leaning against a tree trunk he pondered the question - how to be sure that God loves ME? Into the clear sky a lark rose swiftly with a song of triumph. The lad’s eyes followed the bird until it was lost in space; then his glance returned to the long corn stalks trembling in the evening breeze. Suddenly light began to dawn. Was not the beauty surrounding him a proof of God’s love? The Creator had surely thought of all men’s happiness when He formed the earth! But was that proof sufficient? He needed something more “The Father Himself loveth you.” Who had said that? He must have read it at some time, but where? He could not remember. Now, at this moment, he had the conviction that those words were just for him, Patrick Demier.
A veil seemed to fall from his eyes. Why hadn’t he understood sooner? God had not spared His Son, and Jesus Christ had allowed Himself to be crucified. The Father and the Son had worked together so that he - Patrick - could be saved and God could be a Father to him. Wasn’t that the greatest proof of love?
“You have only to come to Him, just as you are,” Philip had said. He felt that he couldn’t wait any longer; he glanced around; no one was in sight. He was alone - with God. He knelt down.
While spinning down the hill towards home, Patrick realized all at once that the disappearance of the $50 no longer weighed on his mind. That which had come into his life was so much more important. He had dropped his anchor in a safe harbor; his Captain would now take care of all his life’s problems.