~ Especially for Young People ~

Thanksgiving Treasure

Mom, that new boy, Karl, who has just escaped from Hungary, says he is very rich," Jeffery told his mother. "He has burns all over his body, and he hasn't any toys, and they live in an old shack. How can he say that he is so very rich?"

"Why don't you invite him over to play?" Jeffery's mother said. "Maybe he is so poor that he has to play make believe that he is rich." Then she said: "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. Let us share with them some of our good food. I shall put some food in a basket and you can take it to them."

Karl and his mother were glad to get the basket of food. When Jeffery asked Karl to come home to play with him, his eyes lit up with excitement. "You got big home," Karl answered, "and a nice mother too. I go play with you. Maybe you rich like me?"

"Oh, we're not rich," Jeffery said, with a smile, "but we got it pretty good anyway. I have lots of toys to show you. You can ride my bike too."

Karl seemed out of place with his clean, patched up clothes as he followed Jeffery upstairs to Jeffery's bedroom. Karl did not get excited about Jeffery's skates or the other things that Jeffery showed him. The Hungarian boy seemed most interested in the books, for he picked them up one by one and examined them. Then he laid them down with a disappointed look on his face.

"Would you be willing to be beaten by clubs, burnt by a red hot poker, or be locked up in a jail for days without any food for these things you have shown me?" Karl asked his friend.

Jeffery was so surprised at such a strange question that he did not know what to say for a minute. Then he began to wonder if the Hungarian boy's mind had been damaged by the things he had suffered in his country. Everyone knew that Karl and his mother had suffered terrible things under the Communists before they got away.

"Of course not!" Jeffery told his friend. "But why do you ask?"

"You have a lot of nice things," Karl muttered slowly, "but I don't see that you have a Bible. I thought all Americans had a Bible."

Jeffery laughed a little and felt suddenly ashamed. "Oh, I've got a Bible," he confessed, "but I forget it half the time at church."

"Don't you read the Bible every day?" Karl asked him in surprise.

"Of course not!" Jeffery felt a little displeased with his friend for such a question. "The Bible is for Sundays only, you see."

"I guess you are a poor boy," Karl exclaimed sadly. When Jeffery stared at him in surprise he explained, "Do you see all these burnt places on my arms and chest and face? The Communists gave them to me because I had a Bible and because I would not give it up to them. I hid it away and read it in secret. The reading of the Bible made me very happy, for it told me of Jesus. One day He came into my heart and made me a rich boy! They beat me and locked me up without any food, but they could not take Jesus away from me, for He is in my heart!

"You have a lot of things. You can lose them or tire of them. I have a Person, and no one can take Him from me. Every day I learn more about Him as I read my Bible. He is my treasure! But I guess you don't know Him or you would feel the same about Him as I do."

Jeffery hung his head and blushed with shame. He thought for a while, and then he smiled as he said, "Now I know why you say that you are a rich boy! I got to thinking the wrong things as being the most important. I'm going to read my Bible every day too and let Jesus come into my heart. What do you say we start reading the Bible together on Thanksgiving Day?"

Karl smiled and said, "Okay!"

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