A Father's Love for His Very Special Son

December 25, 2023

I love a good story, and there is no better time than Christmas to share good stories. Here is a story that is edited from “A Renegade’s Guide to God” by Pastor David Foster. It has been told many ways over the decades, but it’s message can speak to us in every age.

There once was a fabulously wealthy man who loved his son above all things. To stay close to his son, they began to build an art collection together. Every spare minute, they were out at auctions and sales acquiring rare works of art: everything from Picasso to Raphael. By the time the Vietnam war broke out, they built one of the rarest, most valuable collections in the world. A letter came one day informing the son he had been drafted. The father offered to pull some strings, but the son felt compelled to serve his country as his father and grandfather did before him.

The son went off to war, and he wrote his dad every day. One day the letters stopped. The father’s worst fears were realized when he received a telegram from the war department informing him his son had been killed while attempting to rescue another soldier. About six months later, there was a knock at the door. A young soldier with a large package under his arm said, “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the man your son saved on the day he died. He had already saved many lives that day, and as he was carrying me off the battlefield, he was shot through the heart and died instantly.”

Your son was my friend and we spent many a lonely night talking about you and your love for art. The young soldier held out his package and said, “I know this isn’t much and I’m not much of an artist, but I wanted you to have this painting I’ve done of your son as I last remember him.” The father tore open the package and fought back the tears as he gazed at a portrait of his one and only son. He said, “You have captured the essence of my son’s smile in this painting, and I will cherish it above all others.” The father hung the portrait over his mantle. When visitors came to his home, he always drew attention to the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other masterpieces.

When the father died the news went out that the entire collection was being offered at an exclusive private auction. The greatest art collectors from around the world gathered for the auction. The first painting auctioned was the soldier’s modest rendering of his son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel and asked someone to start the bidding. There were no bids, but plenty of heckling. The auctioneer persisted. “Who will start the bidding? $200? $100? Finally, a squeaky voice from the back said, “I’ll bid $10 for the son.” The bidder was the young soldier the son had died saving. He said, “I didn’t come to buy anything, and all I have is $10 to my name, but I bid it all.”

The angry crowd chanted to sell it to him. The auctioneer pounded the gavel. The painting was sold, and the auctioneer said, “The auction is now officially closed.” The crowd became hostile demanding to know how the auction could possibly be over? The auctioneered announced, “When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told by the deceased that only the painting of the son was to be sold today and whoever takes the son gets it all. So today, for $10 this young man has bought one of the world’s most priceless art collections and the entire estate in which it is housed. Auction closed.” And with the swing of the gavel, the crowd sat in stunned silence staring at the young soldier.

Today’s Christmas thought gets at the heart of the Christian message. You can stop trying to be good enough for God. If you take the son, you’ll get everything else the Father has to offer. As is written in I John 5:12-13, “Whoever has the Son has life; and whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

In what specific ways is Jesus Christ the greatest gift we have ever been given? Think of something you want to do today to show that you have received and accepted this gift? (To find out more about Al Earley or read previous articles see, www.lagrangepres.org).