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            A Chicago businessman tells about coming out of his office on a cold, blustery day.  The snow and rain and sleet were all mixed up and the wind whipped fiercely about him.  He rolled up his collar and ran for his car.  But he didn’t reach his car.  In the doorway of a store he saw a ten-year-old boy.  The boy was blue and shivering and the man could see that he had been crying.  The little fellow looked so pitiful that the man stopped and asked him about his trouble.  The boy said, “Nothing, mister, I am all right.”  But the man spoke more kindly to the boy and then the bay told his story.  “My father sent me for some groceries.  He gave me a dollar with which to buy them, but my hand was so cold the dollar slipped out and I lost it.  I am afraid to go home.”  The man told the boy to go on home – that his father would understand.  But the boy shook his head and said, “You don’t know my dad, he will be drunk and he will almost kill me.  I’ll have to wait until he goes to bed or leaves home.”  The man told the boy that he would help him, so he went over to the store with him and bought the groceries and paid for them.  He told the boy not to tell his father about losing the dollar.  The boy thanked him sincerely and then in a moment of great emotion, he set the groceries down on the counter, put his arms around the man’s waist and, choking up a bit, the boy said, “I wish you was my daddy.”

            Now listen to what the man said, “I walked around four blocks in the rain and sleet and snow to see if I could find another boy who had lost a dollar.”

Simple Sermons for Special Days and Occasions, W. Herschel Ford, page 122, 123