Do you like to eat pears? I do. There is nothing nicer than a ripe, juicy pear, and how good it tastes. Most of us like them.
A group of boys were walking along a road once when they found a pear tree. There were seven pears on this tree, and they looked so tempting and so good that the boys stopped to look at them. As they were standing there the owner of the property came walking across his land, enjoying all the good things he had growing there. When he saw the boys he stopped and talked with them. He asked them if they liked pears, and they answered that they certainly did. So he said to them, “Do you know what I will do? I will give you six of these ripe pears. There are only seven on the tree, so I will keep one for myself.”
Wasn’t that kind and generous of him to give away all his pears but one? You know, God has given us all things richly to enjoy, as He tells us in the Bible in 1 Timothy 6:1717Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; (1 Timothy 6:17). And He has given us six days in the week in which we can have a good time and do our own work, but He has kept only one day for Himself — the Lord’s Day.
Well, these boys enjoyed eating the six pears that the kind man had given them. But as they went on their way, they thought about that one other pear that the man had kept for himself. They said to each other how nice it would be to have that other pear also. And so they went back and took the last pear and divided it up.
How ungrateful they were when the man was so kind to them, you’re thinking. But are we any better than those boys? Do we remember how much the Lord Jesus has done for us? And do we try to please Him and to do His work on His day? We should want to please Him every day of the week, of course, but especially on the Lord’s Day which He has kept for Himself.
ML-04/13/1986