"Happy Birthday"

by Bill Wilson

A few weeks ago Chris Blake, our Sunday school director, brought in an old plastic bag that was given to him by one of the younger kids on his bus route. The boy told Chris, “Here, I want you to give this to someone who is homeless.”

The bag was filled with an odd assortment of well-worn clothes and tattered toys he had collected. “If they don’t have a home, they probably don’t have enough to wear. And their kids probably need some things to play with.”

What impressed Chris was the fact that this little boy was perhaps the poorest child on his entire bus route.

This is the kind of child who makes our journey such a joy.

On my birthday a little boy on my bus route gave me a card. It was a used card. The corners were dog-eared, and it was bent and smudged. Someone else’s name had been erased and mine put in its place. Here’s what it said on the front:

Happy Birthday!
You are Three!

But on the inside he had scribbled the words, “Pastor Bill, I love you.”

Birthday presents don’t get any better than that.