The simple sketch of a priceless life, became the priceless heirloom of a simple soul

My friend Arnold de Wet, a gifted musician, launched his latest CD last night. It was a great moment, but one of the highlights for me was the poignant story that Arnold shared.

He told of a very wealthy art collector, who first lost his wife and then subsequently lost his only son to war. As he tried to reassemble his broken world, he received a visitor. Before him stood a young man who had known the rich man's son and had also done a pencilled sketch of the boy before he died. He showed the drawing to the father, who saw beyond the amateur drawing to the heart behind it. It moved him enough to take the picture and frame it as a personal and moving tribute to his beloved son.

Years later, the rich man died and his world class art collection was put up for auction. Buyers came from near and far to bid on the valuable collection, but just before they started, the auctioneer indicated that, according to the deceased's last wish, Lot 1 of the auction was to be the pencilled drawing.

The erudite audience scoffed at the drawing, but decided to sit back and let it move so that the real bidding could start. Still the auctioneer insisted that Lot 1 had to go first and so proceeded with the bidding process, but he drew interest from only one bidder: the old gardener who had worked for the rich man. Suffice to say, the gardener won the bid and secured the drawing, for a mere pittance.

Then the auctioneer drew proceedings to a close, saying, "In terms of the will, whoever buys the son, gets its all". It meant that the gardener had effectively bought the entire estate for the price of one, unwanted picture of a dead man's long-dead son.

The message is clear. Holding out for everything else will never satisfy anyone, because we can take none of it with us to the grave - even JD Rockerfeller said, "If your only goal in life is to be successful, you will never achieve it". But he that has the son has life (Galatians 6:9) and God has given us all we need for life and godliness, in Christ. Truly, having accepted the son, we got everything and became heirs of God's kingdom.

(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net