Dear Boys and Girls,

There is a story told about a poor woman who stood looking wistfully into the vineyards of a certain king. How she wished she could have a bunch of those lovely grapes for her little boy who was very sick.

She went home to her spinning wheel, and spun some wool, sold it, and earned about 10p in our money. She hurried along to the king's gardens, saw a gardener and offered him the money for a little cluster of grapes. But the gardener just ordered her away.

She went off back home, and taking a blanket off her bed, she went and sold it, and once more returned to the gardener this time offering him 25p. He spoke very roughly to her and was just about to turn her out of the gardens when the king's daughter, the princess, came into the garden. She heard the man's rough words and saw the woman's tears and asked what it was all about. When she heard what had taken place she turned to the poor woman and said, “My dear woman, you have made a great mistake; my father is not a merchant who sells things; he is a great king; people don't come to him to buy things from him, but to receive the things that he will give them.” Without saying another word, the princess plucked a cluster of fine grapes from one of the vines and gave it to the woman. How delighted the woman was.

Now, boys and girsl, I'm sure we can learn a lesson from that little story. Most of us - boys and girls, and older people, too - make great plans about what we would do if we had a lot of money. We would do this, and we would do that, and we would do the other. But, you know, boys and girls, there are some things that we can never buy, no matter how much money we have, and, in fact, we are unable to buy the greatest thing of all, which is the salvation of our souls which makes us into true Christians. The Bible tells us that salvation is God's gift to us. Now, you know that you don't buy a gift! A gift is something that someone gives to you - just as the woman was given the grapes from the great king's vine. And Christ says that if we ask then salvation will be given to us.

Remember that story, and remember that verse from the Bible, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you.”