Print This PostA handful of cherries
One of my Dad’s favorite illustrations about God supplying our needs is a story about a little boy named Johnny. Seems that Johnny was at the Farmer’s Market one afternoon with his Grandma. As usual, Johnny had his beanie cap on. He was staring intently at a big crate of Blackheart cherries when the big man with the apron on came over to wait on them. Seeing Johnny staring intently at the cherries he said, “Go ahead young man, take a handful.” Johnny just continued to stare at the cherries as his mouth watered and his eyes glistened. By this time Grandma was getting embarrassed and insisted that Johnny do what the man in the apron said. Johnny just stood there. Finally, the man in the apron grabbed a huge handful, and as he did Johnny took off his beanie cap and the man filled it with cherries. On the way home, Grandma, a little upset, asked him why he didn’t take the cherries himself. He replied, “But Grandma, his hand was so much bigger than mine!”
My Dad, Franklyn Miller, taught this truth from a practical theology that bore itself out many times in the lives of his family and ministry. From the time he gave his life to Christ as a 17-yr old in Paintsville, KY, to the last breath he took on May 10 of this year, he KNEW that God would supply all he needed to do what God had called him to do. And God did.
Dad is no longer with us on this earth. At least, physically. But he is here. He is here living on in the lives and hearts of those who knew him. To know him was to feel special. He had a way of making you feel that you were the only person in the world, and that you had his undivided attention. I believe that came from knowing his God, and in turn he knew himself. I never saw my Dad treat any person different than another, or talk down to anyone. Knowing that his needs were met by an infinite Savior, and that none of us have more or less than what God allows is a real leveller in the realm of money and power and prestige. Whether Dad was telling the story of Johnny to high school kids or an audience of adults, he could place himself in that story. He knew that if he waited for God to fill his beanie cap with cherries there would always be more than he could have taken for himself. I think Dad knew that the produce man with big hands, wearing an apron, also had a big heart. Maybe as big as God’s.
“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Phil.4:19
p.s. I miss you, Dad
p.p.s. this story came to me from Murf Polan who worked with Dad in YFC and met him 50 years ago. Thanks for the memories.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Memories! It’s taken me some time to respond to this entry. I needed first to meditate on it, cry (happy tears, of course), and meditate some more. There is probably nothing more important that I learned living with your dad for nearly 53 years than the illustration of the little boy and the cherries. If God promised it, we believed it and He supplied, time after time, after time, and is still taking good care of me. I look forward to the day when you publish your FIRST book. So very proud to call you ‘my son.’ Your father was proud of you, too. And my thanks to Murf, also.
Keep writing, so we can keep reading.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks!
I really enjoyed this, it brought home a truth I needed to hear this morning. It also brought back wonderful memories of my father who has been gone 10 years. Loosing Dad at the very early age of just 54 was extremely difficult. I believed he had many more wonderful things to teach me, however, the things he taught me with the stories he told… well they, like this story you shared from your dad, are the very things that shaped us into the adults we are. Adults who know our heavenly Father is the one we really need to learn from each and every day, and His stories are all around us. We just need to take the time to listen to them.
Thanks for the memories… God Bless you!