JIM WAS a poor orphan boy in one of the big cities. He had worked hard to provide for his mother as long as she lived, but when she died it seemed he had lost his last and only friend on earth.
When just a child she would take him to the gospel meetings and he loved the hymns they sang, especially,
"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Times were hard and Jim made a meager living carrying peas to sidewalk vendors. They in turn sold them to kindly and generous people who fed them to the great flocks of pigeons that came fluttering down from all over the city. He also increased his small income by rendering a little service to blind beggars who stood here and there on the busy street corners and would wait for him to call for them.
One morning as Jim was passing the ruins of a bombed building he stopped to stroke a cat which played on the rubble and brick ruins. Delighted with this attention Puss purred and rubbed affectionately against Jim's trouser leg. Just at that moment a city missionary happened along and felt the Lord would have him speak to Jim. "I see you are fond of animals," he remarked.
"I'm fond of some," returned Jim. Then as he talked about his likes and dislikes his friend reminded him of the children's hymn, "The Lord God made them all."
"It's a long time since I heard that hymn," said Jim. "I used to sing it when I was a kid." Then he told of how his mother used to take him to the gospel meetings and he was quite sure that she was in heaven.
"You seem to be a friend to everyone and everything," said the missionary. "You are a friend to the cat, and a friend to the pigeons. You are also a friend to the blind beggar by the wayside. Now, Jim, would you not like to have Jesus, the Saviour of sinners, as your friend." He quoted to him to Proverbs 18:2424A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24). "There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." When here on earth He was known as "a friend of publicans and sinners." Matt. 11:1919The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children. (Matthew 11:19).
"I would like to have the sinners' Friend as mine," replied Jim, "and I would be glad to count on you as a friend too."
So right there amid the rubble they both knelt in prayer, and the missionary friend led him to the Saviour. That day Jim made a new start in life; he was now on the heavenly way. His friend got him a lunch, and they parted.
When they met again some time later Jim no longer carried peas for pigeons, but had had a promotion. His boss was taken sick to the hospital so Jim was entrusted with the whole sales operation. In time he became owner of the little business and his own master. So the Lord blessed and prospered him for his faithfulness.
But best of all Jim assured his friend that the Lord Jesus had become increasingly precious to him, so he had prospered spiritually.
Jim never became rich; he was still poor but happy. Yet he knew the Lord and continued to live a saintly and simple life. The pigeons were unaware of his spiritual and material progress, but they owed a great deal to his perseverance and hard work, and to the kindly folk who purchased peas for pigeons.
Messages of the Love of God 2/16/1975