“Tom,” said his father one day, “I want you to take this bag of beans and plant them in rows in the garden like I will show you.”
He then showed Tom how to sprinkle a few beans down each row, and to cover them over with the soft moist earth. Dad had other work to do, and so he left Tom by himself.
Tom worked away for awhile, and then he sat down to play. As he played he tipped the bag, and the beans spilled all over the ground. At once he set about to pick them up, but there were so many scattered over the ground that soon Tom became tired. Then the thought came to him that if he covered up what was left with dirt, no one would ever know he spilled them. Finally he got the rest of the beans planted and went home.
As the days went by he often thought of the beans he had spilled, but he did not tell his father. Sometime later his father went out to the garden to see if the beans were coming up. He saw several straight rows of little plants pushing their heads above the ground. But where did all these come from that were in a patch by themselves growing so thickly together? Tom did not need to tell his Dad then what he had done. His father guessed what had happened.
Tom was sorry for what he had done, and he learned a lesson that he did not forget, for his father spoke to him of the foolishness of trying to cover up his failure. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num. 32:2323But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. (Numbers 32:23).)
ML-07/02/1978