Seventh-day Adventist Church

2003 NAD Offering Call

“Becoming Faithful Stewards”

EASTER IN ACTION

A number of years ago this true story appeared in Leadership Magazine. One winter’s night in 1935, it is told, Fiorello LaGuardia, the irrepressible mayor of New York city, showed up at a night court in the poorest part of town. He dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench.

That night a tattered old woman, charged with stealing a loaf of bread, was brought before him. She defended herself by saying, “My daughter’s husband has deserted her. She is sick, and her children are starving!” The shop keeper refused to drop the charges saying , “It’s a bad neighborhood, your honor, and she’s got to be punished to teach other people a lesson.”

LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the old woman and said, “I’ve got to punish you; the law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail. However, even while pronouncing sentence, LaGuardia reached into his pocket, took out a ten-dollar bill and threw it into his hat with these famous words:

“Here’s the ten-dollar fine, which I now remit, and furthermore, ‘I’m going to fine everyone in the courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant.”

The following day, a New York newspaper reported:

“Forty-seven dollars and fifty cents was turned over to a bewildered old grandmother who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Making a red-faced storekeeper, seventy petty criminals and a few New York policemen feel rather foolish.”

Appeal text: :“Now just think, what parent would give his son a rock when he asks for a loaf of bread? Or what caring parent would give his child a dish of poison when he asks for food? Parents who love their children don’t do that. How much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!” [Matthew 7: 9 TCW]