THE BEGGAR AND THE KING

And the king lived in a palace so white and clean that it sparkled in the noonday sun. Inside the palace everything was pure and spotless, the very picture of perfection.

One day there was a knock on the door. The king opened the huge white doors and there stood a poor beggar in his dirty gray rags.

"What do you want?" the king asked.

"Please, kind master" the beggar cried. "Please let me in to share the warmth and the comfort of your presence."

And as the king looked out the doors he saw that the weather had turned bitterly cold and this poor beggar would certainly die if he couldn't enter. And the king felt tremendous compassion for the beggar. His love and concern caused a tear to form and run down his cheek. It disappeared into his white beard. He would have given anything to allow this desperate one to enter but he replied, "I'm sorry, I cannot, for you see, you are unclean". For the king knew the ancient law that said:

Indeed, if anyone unclean did enter, the law demanded that the king himself resign for he had violated his very nature having defiled his own perfection. And so the king continued, "If you would enter, two things are necessary: First, you must remove your filthy garments." Well, the beggar was all too ready to do this for his garments were so spotted and smelly that he had long wanted to remove them but was afraid to for he had nothing else to put on. "Secondly", the king continued "you must put on perfectly clean garments in order to enter, for this place is absolutely holy."

The beggar's head bowed. "I have none" he replied.

And as the beggar turned to leave having resigned himself to his bitter death in the cold, his eye caught an unbelievable sight. There outside the palace, standing on the frozen ground was the king's only son.

"What are you doing out here?" the beggar asked.

And as he watched in amazement, the son slowly removed his own garments radiantly white, and he offered them to the beggar.

"What will they cost me?" the beggar asked.

"They're free." replied the son.

"Pretty cheap." the beggar replied, smiling.

But the king's son suddenly caught the beggar's eye with a glance so strong and powerful that the two remained there motionless for what seemed an eternity.

Then in words the beggar would never forget, the son slowly stated, "I said free, not cheap."

And as the son extended his hands to present his own robes to that beggar the poor ones eyes became riveted to two huge scars which now appeared so dramatically on the palms of the king's son. He wondered why he never noticed them before.

"Free, but not cheap" the son repeated and the beggar's head bowed in thankful humility. "Now enter into the joy of my father's presence."

Does the story sound familiar? God is the king. You and I are the beggars. Jesus Christ is the king's son. And only by putting on the robes of Christ's righteousness can we ever enter the presence of God. Have you received Christ's gift?

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." If you wish to know, contact terryihs@yahoo.com. For more stories like this.