The Boy and the Offering Plate

The Boy and the Offering Plate:

A church bus driver was visiting a poor neighborhood to pick up children for Sunday School. He saw this poor little boy in ragged clothes and asked him if he would like to go to church Sunday. If so, he would come by and pick him up on the bus. The boy was excited and said yes. The driver asked if his parents were home so he could talk to them and the boy said they weren’t home very much so it would be alright.

Sunday the church bus pulled up and honked the horn, out came the little boy dressed in the same ragged clothes. The bus driver was kind and made him feel welcome, took him to church and introduced him to his new Sunday School teacher who was kind like the bus driver. He heard about Jesus that morning in Sunday School and thought the bus driver and his teacher must be like this Jesus because no one ever treated him this way.

His teacher took him into big church and had him sit with her. He was amazed at all the kind people, the beautiful carpet and the nice clothes people wore. They sang about Jesus, the preacher talked about Jesus and then they did something he did not understand at first. Men gathered up front and came by passing a shinny plate up and down the rolls. It passed him and he watched his new teacher put money in the plate and pass it by him. He asked her what that was for, she said it was for Jesus. His heart sank, he’d heard about Jesus, sang about Jesus and saw Jesus in his new friends, but he had nothing to give Jesus. As the man took the plate from him and moved to the next roll he got an idea. He got up and went to the man with the plate and asked him if he could have the plate. With caution the man handed it to him. The boy put the plate on the floor and stepped in it and said, “Jesus, I don’t have anything to give you but me.”