A Place for Everyone
On Saturday morning, Emily’s neighborhood held a big Community Garden Day. Everyone was invited to help turn an empty lot into a beautiful garden.
Emily arrived early with her dad. She pulled weeds, carried bags of soil, and planted rows of colorful flowers.
“This is hard work!” Emily said, wiping her forehead.
As the morning went on, more children arrived. Some planted vegetables. Others spread mulch or filled watering cans.
After lunch, Emily noticed a boy named Eli standing near the fence.
“Do you want to help?” she asked.
Eli looked down. “I just moved here. I don’t know anyone, and I didn’t know about Garden Day until now.”
“Come on!” Emily said. “You can work with us.”
Eli joined the group and spent the last hour watering the new plants.
When the work was finished, Mrs. Lopez, who organized the garden, gathered everyone together.
“You did a wonderful job!” she said. “I have something for each of you.”
She opened a large box filled with small gardening kits. Each one had gloves, a shovel, flower seeds, and a bright green water bottle.
Emily was thrilled until she saw Mrs. Lopez give Eli a kit too.
“Wait,” Emily whispered to her dad. “Eli only helped for one hour. I’ve been here all day!”
Her dad smiled. “Did Mrs. Lopez promise you something different?”
“No,” Emily admitted.
“Then maybe the question isn’t whether Eli got too much,” Dad said. “Maybe it’s whether you can be happy that someone else received something good.”
Emily looked across the garden. Eli was holding his gardening kit with a huge smile.
“My family never had a garden before,” he told Mrs. Lopez. “I’m going to plant these flowers outside our new apartment!”
Suddenly, Emily saw things differently.
Mrs. Lopez hadn’t forgotten how hard Emily had worked. She was simply being generous to Eli too.
Emily walked over to him.
“Those flowers need lots of sunshine,” she said. “I can show you how to plant them if you want.”
“Really?” Eli asked.
“Sure!”
As they walked home, Emily thought about what she had learned.
Sometimes we compare what we have with what someone else receives. We may even think, “That’s not fair!”
But being fair doesn’t always mean everyone has the same story.
Sometimes kindness means giving someone a chance, welcoming someone who came late, or being generous simply because we can.
And Emily discovered something else: Someone else’s good fortune doesn’t take anything away from ours. A generous heart can be thankful for what it receives, and joyful when others are blessed too.
Inspired by Matthew 20:1-16a.