Choosing obedience

I remember last summer when I went to Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island for a week of surf and sermons. A room with six sets of bunk beds was vacant, so they assigned it to me-that's 12 beds between my then 5-year-old granddaughter and me. (We could've slept in a different one every night if we had wanted to!) Since I had so much spare room, my son announced that he and two buddies would drive up on Friday night after work. They said they would pull in past midnight and crash there through Saturday.

The thought crossed my mind (no, it camped out in my mind) that I didn't need to bother notifying the office about my midnight arrivals-the beds were going to waste anyway; my granddaughter doesn't eat their dining room food, and I myself have missed more meals than I've made, so I am overpaying anyway; the boys will sleep through breakfast and will eat only my share at lunch.

But you see, I know a Michigan inmate who walked a half-mile to return a box of oatmeal that was mistakenly put in his store order, even though his cellies were telling him he was crazy and that he should take the error as a gift from God, and God's redressing the times he had been shortchanged in his orders. The inmate reminded his fellow prisoners that Jesus said: "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much" (Luke 16:10). I was taken aback by the simplicity of his obedience to Christ.

I decided to go down to the office and pay for the boys. My granddaughter and the boys took note. Who knows what impression that left in their minds.

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