Do you like to eat pears? I do. There is nothing nicer than a ripe, juicy pear. They taste so good.
A group of boys was walking along a road one day when they found a pear tree with fruit on it. There were seven pears on the 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 yes, they did. So he said to them, “Here’s what I’ll do, I’ll give you six of these ripe pears. There are only seven on the tree, so I’ll 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 work, but He has kept only one day for Himself—Sunday, the Lord’s Day.
Well, those 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 picked the last pear and divided it up.
How ungrateful and selfish those boys were when the man was so kind to them! 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 do His work on His day? Or do we selfishly steal that day from Him?
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-01/18/2015