And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward – Matthew 10:42.

    For about twenty minutes every day for many months, a pastor made lunch for an elderly blind man and took it to the man’s small rented room. While the blind man ate the food the pastor had brought to him, the pastor would read the Scriptures and fellowship with him. The pastor faithfully continued to minister to the man in this way until the blind man’s death.
     In the meantime, the pastor’s church began to experience a great financial crisis. They needed thirty-thousand dollars to pay off their mortgage or they were going to lose their building. The finances were not coming forth, so all they could do was pray.
     Then one day, the pastor received a call from the blind man’s attorney.
     “When are you going to come and get your money?” the lawyer asked.
     “What money?”
     The attorney went on to explain that the blind man had left the church thirty thousand dollars.
     The pastor was dumbfounded. “But he was poor, he had no money!”
     “It was hidden in his mattress,” was the reply.
     The overwhelmed and extremely grateful congregation rejoiced at the miracle, and celebrated the event for many years after.
     "It was only twenty minutes of my time every day,” the pastor who related this true story to me said simply. Or it could have been just a cup of cold water, or any other small act of kindness. Whether the reward is immediate and material or something that we will not see until we reach our final destination in heaven, the point is; no act of loving service will go unnoticed or unrewarded. That’s a promise.

Copyright 2011 by H. D. Shively