25-Sep-22 (Luke 16:19-31)

I'm going to tell you a story today, about a little boy, about your age. The boy had all the really good toys. He had robots that you could move with remote controls. He had planes that actually flew. He had all the best video games. Day after day he would play with his toys inside and outside.
Sometimes other kids would come over and watch him play. Sometimes they'd ask if you could try. He always said, "No." After all, these were his toys and how could he enjoy them is someone else was playing with them. After a while the kids stopped coming over. Sometimes he could hear them or see them playing in their own yards, but they never came over anymore.
After a while, he noticed something else: Sometimes he would see the other kids playing with their toys. They weren't as good as his toys. They couldn't possibly be having as much fun with them... but then he noticed something even more: When the other kids went out to play with their robot toys, sometimes they'd pass the controlled around to other kids and they'd run it for a while. Sometimes they'd even have three or four robots all running around together. He also noticed that sometimes one of them would go over to another kids house carrying a bag. He was close enough to see that the bag had video game controllers in it. He wondered why one of them would go over to another one's house with just their controllers. Didn't he need the game console? He was puzzled until he saw them playing a game together where everyone had a controller.
He was puzzled by another thing too: They all seemed to be having a lot of fun. He was sure his games and toys were better, but they seemed to be having fun even so.
He sat for a long time thinking about what he'd seen and then he got up and did something. What do you think he did? [Wait for answers.]

Let's pray about that.
God, we know it's hard sometimes to share the good things we have with other people. Help us see, like the boy in the story, that it's lot more fun for everyone when we share our good things with others, when we play together.
When we see other people who don't have the things we do. Help us to share.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.