Like Father, Like Son

One of America’s top crimes is larceny-theft. It can be robbing a bank or writing a bad check. It can be copyright infringement, especially with music where you are cheating someone out of their royalty. There are lots of different ways of taking something we shouldn’t have.
There’s a story about a father who found out from the school authorities that his son had stolen pencils. The father was outraged. When the son came home, he gave him a spanking and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Why do you steal? Don’t I bring home enough pencils for you from work?”
Compare that with the actions of Ascension Franco Gonzales, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles. He earns $1,300 a month as a dishwasher and sends $800 of that to his parents in Mexico every month to help them build a concrete block house. The newspaper reported that Gonzales saw bags of money fall out of an armored truck. He agonized over what to do but then called the police and turned it in, knowing that he risked being deported. It turned out to be $203,000. He said he just couldn’t keep it. It wouldn’t be right. He was raised by his parents to be a good Catholic and he could not steal what was not his.
In both stories it was like father, like son. If we are trusting in God as our father, when we face temptation we’ll know what to do.

Related Scripture: I Corinthians 10:13 & Matthew 26:41

© 2007 Leith Anderson