Raking Leaves & Missing Lockets

“Hey, Jeremy!” Patrick called to his friend. “You wanna come over to my house on Saturday? I got that new video game I told you about and another controller, so we can both play.”

“That sounds super!” Jeremy replied. “I’ll have to ask my mom, but I’m sure she’ll say okay.”

Later that day, Jeremy asked his mom about Saturday. He was surprised when she replied, “Oh no, Jeremy. We’re all going to join our church group to do yard work for the Morgans.”

“The Morgans?” Jeremy asked. “Who are they?”

“They’re an older couple who can’t take care of their yard by themselves,” Mom replied.

“Why don’t they just hire someone to do it?”

“Because they don’t have enough money to hire someone. Besides, this is a perfect opportunity for us to show these people that we care and to invite them to church.”

Jeremy was frustrated. He didn’t want to clean up someone’s yard. Why should he help? He didn’t know them—they didn’t even go to his church!

On Saturday, Jeremy stood in a messy yard cluttered with leaves and sticks and old trash. “This is totally not what I want to be doing right now,” Jeremy thought to himself as he raked up a pile of leaves.

Jeremy’s sister, Emily, dragged a big garbage bag around the yard, shoving newspapers and trash into it. “This is kinda fun, isn’t it, Jeremy?” she asked her big brother. “Have you met Mr. and Mrs. Morgan?”

“No,” Jeremy said as he angrily pulled another bunch of leaves toward him with the rake.

“They’re super nice.”

“I don’t care,” Jeremy said. “I just wanna get done so we can go.”

“How come?” asked Emily.

“I want to play a new video game at Patrick’s, that’s why,” he answered.

The day dragged on. Jeremy kept raking leaves and picking up sticks. Then he noticed his sister sitting on the porch with some other kids from the group. They were listening carefully to Mr. Morgan and watching his every move. Jeremy was curious. He dropped his rake and wandered up to the porch to see what was going on. He heard Mr. Morgan say, “Presto!” Suddenly, a bunch of flowers appeared in Mr. Morgan’s hand.

“Yay!” The kids shouted and clapped. “Do another one, Mr. Morgan!”

“Okay, this one is called the disappearing coin,” Mr. Morgan replied. He pulled a silver coin out of his pocket and placed it in the palm of his hand for the kids to see. Then he waved his other hand over top of the coin and showed them his empty hands. The kids gasped.

“Where’s the coin?” Emily asked.

“I think it’s around here somewhere.” Mr. Morgan reached behind Emily’s ear and pulled out the coin!

“Wow! That’s a neat trick,” the kids exclaimed.

“Well, kids,” said the group leader, “we’ve got a few more weeds to pull and leaves to rake, so let’s get at it.”

The kids who were watching the magic tricks left the porch and put their work gloves back on.

Jeremy sighed and returned to his raking. As he gave a vicious pull at some leaves, something glittered in the grass and dirt underneath. He bent down and shoved the leaves out of the way and found a gold chain. He pulled it up and realized it was a gold necklace with a locket that could open.

“Wow! Jeremy! What did you find?” Emily ran over and peered at the necklace.

“This was under my leaf pile! It looks expensive!”

“You should show it to the Morgans and see if it’s theirs,” suggested Emily.

“Good idea, Sis.” Jeremy ran to the porch and Emily followed. “Look what I found in your yard!” he announced as he held up the necklace.

“Oh my!” gasped Mrs. Morgan. “I thought I’d lost it forever.” Tears filled her eyes as she carefully took the necklace from Jeremy. She opened the locket and showed him and Emily two old, faded pictures of a man and a woman inside.

“That’s the necklace with our old wedding day photos!” Mr. Morgan exclaimed.

“And to think it was in our yard this whole time!” Mrs. Morgan said as she lovingly brushed some dirt off the locket. Then she reached over and grabbed Jeremy’s hand. “I can’t thank you enough for coming today. This locket means so much to me.”

“If you hadn’t come, it might have stayed buried in the yard forever,” Mr. Morgan noted, giving Jeremy a pat on the back.

“See, Jeremy? This was way better than video games with Patrick,” Emily said happily.

Jeremy was embarrassed. He looked at the Morgans and confessed, “You know, I wasn’t happy to be here at first. But now I see that God had a better plan for my Saturday than I did.”

“I haven’t thought about God in years, but I think you may be right. Finding this locket is better than any magic trick!” Mr. Morgan said with a grin.

“It’s a miracle!” Emily exclaimed.

“We’re happy about the locket, but the real miracle is how you and all these other kind folks have sacrificed to come and show kindness to two old people. We can’t thank you enough,” Mrs. Morgan said as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

“Well, I think you two are really great. Maybe you could come to church with us this Sunday,” Jeremy suggested.

Mr. and Mrs. Morgan looked at each other, then turned back to Jeremy. “Yes, we’d love to!”

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