It was in a kindergarten class in a mission school in Japan, where little children were learning about the love of the Lord Jesus. In this kindergarten every day at noon a little lunch was served. Children like to eat. They are the same in this respect in all lands.
In this Japanese kindergarten, when lunch was ready and all the children were sitting comfortably on the floor, they had been taught to close their eyes and say a little prayer of thanksgiving to God for the food. Then they would open their eyes and begin to talk and laugh and eat all at once, for they are just like other children.
One evening at home one of these little girls bowed her head over her bowl of rice and said her grace.
“What are you doing?” asked her father in surprise, for he loved his little girl very, very much.
“I’m thanking God for this nice rice,” she replied.
“But your mother cooked the rice and prepared it for you,” he went on to say. “Why don’t you thank her?”
“Yes, Daddy,” said his little girl. “I do thank Mommie for cooking it, but she did not make the rice. It was God who made it and I am thanking Him.”
This sounded all very strange to her father, but after thinking it over for some days he went to the missionary lady there and asked what it all meant. She told him about God the Maker of all things, of how He is a God of love who cares for His creatures even though they do not care about Him oftentimes. She told him of His love in sending His dear Son down into this world to die for sinners, for all men everywhere.
So it was that the dear Japanese father came to know the Lord Jesus as his own precious Saviour. Now in his home, when the rice is served, all the family bow their heads and they give thanks to God for the food.
O how great is His goodness! What a gracious, loving God and Father He is! How precious to know His love, told out in all its fullness in the gift of His dear Son! Do you know Him, dear reader?
ML 03/19/1967