Who Robs A Food Bank?
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reports:
A local nonprofit is in dire need of help after thieves broke into its food pantry last weekend and walked away with office equipment and cleared out its shelves.
Larry Kapchinsky, the co-founder of KidCare International, estimates this has set back the pantry about $20,000. Now he’s asking the community to help them feed needy families this holiday season.
“A whole year of preparing for this season got wiped out in one night,” he said … Kapchinsky said he was in disbelief when the volunteer called to tell him the news. “Who steals from a food bank? We would have given them help if they just asked,” he said.
Kapchinsky says the suspects went into the freezer and took almost all the items, leaving unwanted items in the freezer. Those items went to waste because the freezer door stayed open.
“What they didn’t steal, they trashed,” he said.
Some people would rather resort to desperate measures, including stealing from a food bank, rather than ask for the help they need.
But thanksgiving begins with a willingness to receive. Don’t rob God of the gratitude He is due because you don’t know how to receive what has been freely given to you. And understand that even more valuable than all of the things the world has to offer is the possession of a grateful heart. Gratitude makes us rich. Possessing the whole world, without the proper gratitude toward God, leaves us poor.
“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Finger and Thumb Deception
A pastor and collector of SATURDAY EVENING POST paraphernalia shares the following illustration of the subtleties of violating the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal":
… You may remember the SATURDAY EVENING POST covers that dealt with this particular commandment. The picture I’m referring to shows a woman buying a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving. The bird is lying on the scales and the butcher is standing in back of the counter…apron pulled tight over his fat stomach…pencil tucked behind his ear. The customer, a lady looking to be about 60 years young, stands watching the weighing in of the big bird. In the picture, both the lady and the butcher have pleased looks on their faces…as if each knew a secret joke.
Now, to see the reason for their knowing smiles you have to look closely at their hands. For, the butcher is pushing DOWN on the scales with a big fat thumb and the woman is pushing UP on the other side with a dainty forefinger. Neither is aware of what the other was doing so both apparently think they are getting the best of the other….STEALING without the other even knowing. I don’t remember the caption but I suppose it could be something like: “The case of the butcher’s THUMB and the lady’s FOREFINGER” But, whatever it’s title, it does serve to illustrate our attitude toward the 8th commandment.
*Click here to see a picture of the Leslie Thrasher classic "Tipping the Scales," which adorned the cover of THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, Oct 3, 1936.
He continues:
You see, both the butcher and the lady would resent being called thieves. The lady would never rob a bank or steal a car and if the butcher had a customer to give him a bad check, he would call the police and report a crime. But neither saw anything wrong with a little “finger or thumb deception” that would make a few cents for one or save a few cents for the other. And we are much like these two. We agree that this is a good commandment but we don’t think it really applies to us. After all we are not THIEVES!
Even Small Acts Of Honesty Can Be Huge
Back in 1997 a Brinks armored truck was involved in a crash. It ended up dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars onto a street in Miami, Florida. Witnesses and spectators rushed to the scene — not to help, but to steal! Onlookers, grabbing fists of cash from the street, sidewalk, and gutters, ran from the area, never to be seen again. Others simply found cash and coin after the fact, not knowing when or how the money was deposited there. Police, in desperation, put out an offer of amnesty for any who would return their take of the dumped payload.
Only two people steppef forward:
MIAMI (CNN) -- A mother of six and a school boy are the only ones to have returned money they found in the street after an armored truck overturned in a Miami neighborhood Wednesday.
Only Faye McFadden, who returned $19.53, and 11-year-old Herbert Tarvin, who gave back 85 cents, took advantage of a police offer of amnesty for anyone returning money by last weekend.
Little Herbert said that he had to "do the right thing and turn the money in becuase it doesn't belong to me."
Eighty-five cents. Eighty-five cents out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Doesn't sound like much, does it? And yet it might as well have been millions. Herbert didn't "steal" the change he recovered from the street; he simply found it there. But his heart was to do the right thing.
Sometimes "the right thing" comes in small acts of obedience. It's in the daily, small gestures of honesty and obedience that character is forged.
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much" (Luke 16:10, ESV).
"His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master'" (Matthew 25:23, ESV).
"You shall not steal," (Exodus 20:15, NIV).