The Sound of Money for the Smell of Food
Matthew 25:31-46
Illustration
by B. Wiley Stephens

A hungry man was walking down the street in a village of medieval Turkey. He had only a piece of bread in his hand. He came to a restaurant where some meatballs were being grilled. The cooking meat was so near and the smell so delicious the man held his piece of bread over the meat to capture some of the smell. As he started to eat the bread, the angry restaurant owner seized him and took him away to see a judge.

The owner protested, "This man was stealing the smell of my meat without asking permission. I want you to make him pay me for it." The judge thought for a moment, then held up his purse in front of the owner and shook it. "What are you doing that for?" asked the restaurant owner? The judge replied, "I am paying you. The sound of money is fair payment for the smell of food."

The challenge when we are dealing with the least and the last is to make sure that what we are sharing with them is real. We must make sure that our care is expressed in ways that are tangible and begins to change lives.

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., Heaven's Audit of One's Soul, by B. Wiley Stephens