A Painting of His Son

An elderly man raised his only son by himself after his wife had passed away. The older man was an art collector so their home was full of beautiful, expensive artwork. When the son was 19 he went off to war. While there, he lost his life saving the life of another soldier. A few years passed when a young man showed up at the elderly man's door. The young man had wanted to thank the father for his son that touched him and saved his life, but never knew how. However, he was an amature artist and decided to paint a portrait of the son. Although he knew this portrait would never measure up to the artwork the father collected, he presented it to him anyways.The father loved it so much that he placed the painting above his mantle - the center of his home and life. As people from around the world came to the man's home to see his collections of art, the very first piece he would show them was the painting of his only son that he loved so dearly.

Eventually the father passed away. An auction was held to sell all the artwork he owned, and people from around the world came. The auctioneer held up the first piece, the painting of the son. He opened the auction at 1000 dollars, but nobody would accept. The audience grew restless and insisted the auctioneer move on to the real art. The price dropped to 500 dollars, then 100, then eventually 5 dollars. Nobody seemed interested in the painting of the father's son, until a hand from the back of the group slowly raised. The hand belonged to the gardener - a worker and old friend of the father and his son. He didn't have much money and wasn't much for artwork, but he had grown close to the son as he watched him grow. At the selling of the painting of the son, the auctioneer closed the auction, announcing that in the will of the father, he left his entire inheritance to the one person that would accept his son.

Our Father in Heaven has promised us his entire inheritance to those that will accept his Son. All he asks in return is that we give to Him all that we can, even if it's just 5 dollars.