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A true story from The Price of a Coconut by O. L. King
Oscar Logan King was born to a poor family in southern Indiana in May of 1887. Life was hard in those days and luxuries were few. Oscar learned to work hard on the family farm and to make good choices. One of the good choices he made was to learn to listen to the Lord.
When Oscar was eight years old, someone shared part of a Christmas coconut with him. Oscar thought that he had never tasted anything so good. But coconuts were not particularly common in the backwoods of southern Indiana in those days; and four years passed before he saw another coconut.
It was on a rare Christmas Eve visit to town that he saw it. Only one—in the display window of a store—and he had the money to purchase it! His grandfather had given him a whole dime—ten cents to spend all for himself. Ten cents was a lot of money in those days, and Oscar took a moment to consider the purchase. As he did so, he seemed to hear a voice say, “Leave the coconut. Do not buy it now.”
Oscar did not know why, but he obeyed the “still small voice,” and he moved on to another store where his attention was then drawn to a little red New Testament. Its price was also ten cents.
Oscar didn’t think that he needed this New Testament, but the same “still small voice” seemed to say, “Go in and buy the Testament.” Again, he did not know why, but he went into the store and bought the Testament.
Leaving the store, he met a boy several years younger than he and got into conversation with him. He soon discovered that this boy (we are not told his name, so we will call him Tom) did not seem to know anything much about the Lord Jesus Christ. Taking the Testament out of his pocket, Oscar asked Tom if he could read.
“No,” Tom replied, “but Mother is a good reader.” So, Oscar gave the New Testament to Tom, who promised to take good care of it, and they parted. Oscar was so happy that he hardly thought about the coconut.
Oscar did not tell anybody what he had done with the ten cents his grand-father had given him, and even Oscar wondered why he had felt led to do as he had done. It was a mystery.
Several years later, now in his late teens, Oscar began to be a simple preacher of the gospel—in homes, in school houses, wherever there seemed to be an opportunity. And the Lord used him to bring many of the country folk to Himself. On one occasion, he was asked to preach at a former school house which had obviously seen better days. Looking over the rough crowd, Oscar guessed that there might easily be more guns there than Bibles. He decided to ask everybody who had brought a Bible to hold up the Bible.
In the back of the small crowd, there was a hand holding up a red New Testament—and a voice seemed to say to Oscar, “There is the price of your coconut.”
After the meeting, Oscar crossed the room to meet the boy holding the New Testament; and he asked him how he came to have it. The boy told how, several years before, it had been given to him in town one Christmas Eve. He had taken it home, and his mother had spent the rest of the evening and most of the next day reading it. The family began reading it often; and first his father and then his mother, and then his family, and then his neighbors had heard and believed in Jesus.
Oscar then told Tom who he was; and when Tom announced to the people present, “This is the man who sent this little book to this community,” there was some celebration! It was a very happy meeting!
Several years later, Oscar left home to “learn how to preach.” We think it is plain that he already knew how to preach, but the general opinion seemed to be that he needed training. So he went to college—a Bible college.
This was a very new experience for him, and he felt very out of place—until he saw a light-haired head and heard again, “There is the price of your coconut.” Tom had come to college, too—not to learn to preach but to prepare to go to a mission field. So, Oscar and Tom enjoyed rooming together that year.
Tom proved to be a brilliant student; and when he left college, he left it to be a missionary to China—and who knows how many souls came to Christ because of that coconut-priced New Testament!
But the story is not finished yet:
Oscar continued to preach the gospel. To him, nothing mattered more than precious souls. In time, he met and married a true helpmeet; and the Lord sent him and his wife to the tropical Caribbean Islands where he labored for the Lord for many years.
It had taken a while, but there he had all the coconuts he wanted, and more. But, better than that, he had the memory of having made a good choice as a twelve-year old boy, and the memories of the blessings which had flowed from that simple choice.
Naturally speaking, Oscar had the right to buy that ten-cent coconut, but he made a better choice—not knowing how significant the outcome would be. What are you willing to give up for Jesus?
JAK