ONLINE CHURCH BULLETIN

A PEDDLERS POT OF SOUP

THERE WAS A great famine in Eastern Europe. People hoarded all their food. A stranger wandered into town, promising to prepare a delicious soup for everyone. He heated water in a cauldron, removed a stone from a velvet bag, and proceeded to cook it. He hinted to the curious people that it would taste much better with a little cabbage—someone brought one to him. The stranger also mentioned other ingredients, one at a time, which the villagers produced. The villagers offered to pay the peddler a great deal of money for the stone, which he refused to sell. Long after the famine ended, the people reminisced about the finest soup they had ever had, not realizing that they had in actuality "pitched in" for the common good of all. When each of us contributes what we have, the Lord's church both individually and collectively is benefited and blessed. "For we are workers together with God..." (1 Corinthians 3:9a; 2 Corinthians 1:24; Philippians 4:3; Colossians 4:1 1; 3 John 1:8).