Can you hear that? It’s the sound of the school buses starting and the other sound you may hear is the groans of the children as this month many will return to the joy of what we parents like to call “school”. Every August we repeat this pattern until the last child we call ours leaves for college. It happens so fast.
The other weekend we had the thrill of having our two granddaughters spend the night with us, Gracer and Gabster. They usually spend the night on Fridays, and their mother has started a tradition on that day. Friday is donut day! We happen to live above a grocery store sooooooo guess who has some of the best donuts in the city? Yea that’s right we do and they are just downstairs! One such Friday night, upon our return from the donut quest, which I might say we were more than victorious, for both the two girls held in their hands long johns that if Willie Wonka had been in the room would have died for and given his chocolate factory for just a taste of one those cream-filled delicacies. Gracer’s was chocolate covered, filled with luscious icing inside and Gabster’s was filled with the same luscious icing inside but hers was covered with a caramel so good it would make your mama shout! After devouring the two donuts and washing them down with some chocolate milk, it was time to prepare for the movie we had gotten for the girls. Maria aka “Shasha” began the popcorn. The girls resumed their playing, and I began to clean up the evidence that there had ever been donuts in our house. I noticed Gracer going into our bedroom, and when she didn’t return for some time I went to check on her. As I entered the room, there she was just staring at a jar of coins I have on the floor in our bedroom. Like many people, at the end of the day I take all loose coins from my pockets and put them in this clear jar. Someday I think to myself I will take the jar to the bank and then I’ll take Maria to Italy or maybe France on a dreamy vacation… and then I wake up and conclude ok maybe to Six Flags. Gracer looked from the jar to me and asked, “Poppy is that your jar of money”? “Yes.” I replied. She then looked back at the jar of coins and said “Wow you’re rich”. Then she did the most unexpected act I could ever imagine a 9- year old do. She took a few coins she had in her pocket and added them to the jar. I stared at her and replied with a heartfelt affirmation, and said “Yes, I am rich.” My good fortune had nothing to do with money, but everything to do with her and the two other girls in the kitchen. We are rich by not what we have but by what we give away. Things like houses, cars, or land or money makes none of us rich. It is the relationships we have in our lives that make us rich. Watching my grandbaby Gracer reach into her little pockets and place the coins she had retrieved into the jar in my bedroom was as they say, “priceless”. People are always more important than things. The little girl with a giving heart made me feel rich, not the jar of coins or all the money in the world could be worth more than the relationship I have with her. Re-member at the end of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life George realized that he was rich because of his family and friends and not from anything he could own. The relationships you nourish on Sundays at church, your family, your neighbors, these are what make you rich, not what you deposit at your bank. Join us at church this Sunday and let’s experience the blessings of our Heavenly Father together at Zion!
Feeling richer than Oprah,
Pastor Rick