The Old Tin Can

Read: James 2:1-9

“Look!” Naomi pointed to a tin can outside her family’s apartment building. “Somebody is a litterbug.”

“Yeah,” said Samuel. “Let’s throw that old can in the trash.” As he picked it up with a napkin, he noticed something stuffed inside. “Hey! There’s money in here!”

Samuel and Naomi hurried inside, eagerly discussing all the things they could do with the money. “Hold on!” Dad said when he heard about it. “This is quite a bit of money. We need to see if we can find whoever lost it so we can return it to them.”

The kids gave each other glum looks, but they handed the money over to Dad.

“I found the owner of that money,” Dad told them the next day. “On my way to the subway this morning, a homeless man I often see looked very upset. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me he lost a tin can containing all his money. When I asked how much was in it, the amount matched what we found in this one.”

“But we’re not going to give it to him, are we?” asked Samuel. “He probably got it by making people think he needed it when he was really planning to use it for something bad, like drugs.”

“You don’t know that,” Dad said. “And he does need money to buy food. In any case, it’s his money, not ours, and we need to return it to him.”

Naomi frowned. “But we were going to use it to buy groceries and give to the missionary fund at church! Now it’s just gonna go to waste.”

“It doesn’t sound like you have a very high opinion of the person who lost this money,” Dad said. “But he’s kind of like that old tin can. You thought it was just a piece of trash, but when you looked inside, you found something valuable. That homeless man is valuable too. God loves him so much that He sent Jesus to die for him. As His children, God wants us to show that man how loved and valuable he is.”

Samuel and Naomi looked at each other. “Okay, Dad,” Samuel said. “We’ll return the money.”

“Yeah,” said Naomi. “And let’s make him a card that says how much Jesus loves him.”

–Harry C. Trover

How about you? Do you show God’s love to everyone and treat them with respect? Or just people you think are worthy of it? None of us are worthy of God’s love—we’re all sinners who have done bad things. But God loves us anyway. He loves us so much that He sent His own Son, Jesus, to die for our sins! And He wants us to show that same love to others, no matter who they are.

Today's Key Verse: If you look on one man as more important than another, you are sinning. James 2:9 (NLV)

Today's Key Thought: Show God’s love to everyone