On the way home from church after the people demanded that Moja not be put to sleep, he was in the car with me. I said, “Moja, you don’t know how close you came to going to the pound! But some good people who have learned to know you and love you have saved your life!” He purred all the way home.
So the next Sabbath, here comes Moja to church again. I told the children what had happened at the door as I was shaking hands with the people last Sabbath, and how those people had stepped in and actually saved Moja from going to the pound.
In my arms as I stood before the children, Moja purred delightedly.
So then I told the children a lovely story that Jesus told the people. It fits in with this experience Moja had.
“There was once a rich man who had a servant who managed his property [that means, the rich man trusted this servant]. The rich man was told that the manager was wasting his master’s money, so he called him in and said, ’What is this I hear about you? Turn in a complete account of your handling of my property, because you cannot be my manager any longer’” (Luke 16:1, 2). That meant that at last this servant was going to be fired. He would have to go begging.
But this servant was not only a thief; he was also a very smart man, and in the story Jesus told, the master praised his being so clever.
“The servant said to himself, ‘My master is going to dismiss me from my job. What shall I do? I am not strong enough to dig ditches, and I am ashamed to beg.’
“‘Now I know what I will do!’” (verses 3, 4).
So he began cheating his master all the more, telling the people who owed him money that he would give them a receipt “Paid in full” if they paid only a little of what they owed. This way he figured he could make a lot of friends, so when he was fired and had nowhere to go, these people would welcome him and take him in. He would have food and a place to stay as long as he lived.
Clever, wasn’t it?
Then Jesus told what the story means: We are to live to help other people, to bless them, to “make friends” among them. Then when we come to the final great judgment and we have nothing good to set before the Lord (none of us is good of himself!), these people who have become our “friends” will step up for us and ask that we be let in to heaven.
Now, let’s not misunderstand: Jesus was not teaching that our friends can save us in the final judgment; only the grace of the Lord can save anyone. But the point of Jesus’ story is that if you have given your life to serve Jesus, many people will be your friends forever in heaven! They’ll make you feel happy there! And you will feel welcome.
That’s important! You’d be miserable in heaven if you knew you weren’t wanted there, wouldn’t you? Getting to heaven is learning to be happy there! That’s why here and now we learn to give up the sinful, worldly things that couldn’t make us happy there.
And Moja became my little illustration for telling this story.
After church that Sabbath, Moja was happy to get home again.