His younger brother spent a lot of money traveling to visit him in prisons far away and close at hand. The older brother saw that his younger brother was kind and good to him even though he deserved revenge for stealing all those precious and rare coins many years ago. In prison, he decided to turn from his evil ways and start on a good path.

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More years passed, and the father of the brothers decided to reward his sons with coins he kept in a secret vault neither of the brothers knew about. He gave some pennies, nickels, and dimes to the good brother, but rewarded the brother who didn’t deserve it with large gold and silver coins. In fact, the father asked the good son to hold these precious coins in safekeeping until his older son was released from prison. Imagine that!

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The postman delivered the heavy package of coins from one end of the country to the other. One day a large, heavy package arrived at the home of the younger son, containing coins for the son who was still in prison. “He’ll need this and more when he get out of jail,” the father said. The good son thought, “Here’s my chance to get even with my older brother for stealing all my coins when we were young boys. I could get revenge, and my brother would never know it because he is not expecting any coins from his father. However, that wouldn’t be right in God’s eyes, so I will keep the package safe as my father asked and give the coins to my brother when he is finished serving his prison sentence, so he can start down a better path this time.”

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And that is what the good brother did. He even sent his father a thoughtful gift of money to cover the expense of sending the heavy package of coins across the whole country.

This story was read to our four grandchildren (one of whom is his great uncle’s pen pal) after a family dinner last year. Here are the questions I asked:

What is the first thing you thought when you heard this story?

Do you recognize the good brother?

Now, I ask, when will the good brother get his reward?

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