THE MILLIONAIRE'S DAUGHTER

The millionaire’s four-year old daughter-- I had never seen her before. Now, there she was just yards up the beach.

Brisk wind held seagulls in near mid-air suspension over blue sky touching blue water. But now my attention was focused on the millionaire’s daughter. And her father.

I had my camera. I wanted a picture. But . . . a camera could not adequately preserve the scene. A few degrees cooler than playing-on-the-beach weather--they frolicked exuberantly on an abandoned expanse of sand. So engaged with each other, I doubt they noticed me. They zoomed a yellow toy front-end loader around a freshly created sandcastle. If their laughs and hugs were the loader’s fuel, it would run forever.

I stood there suspended in my thought world. My mind grabbed images of several under nurtured kids I care about.  

With emotions continuing to ping pong, I walked towards the man. A stranger. I extended my hand: “You must be a millionaire.”

He replied, “I’m not a millionaire.”  

He didn’t know my brain was contexting our conversation through the words of Jesus. "For what does it profit a man, what does he benefit, if he gains the whole world, and yet forfeits his soul—forfeit the vital force of his life?” And along that gain-the-whole-world path, what else will be traded in for the allurement?  Maybe a four year-old daughter?

“You’re doing what’s important,” I said. “In my eyes you’re a millionaire.”

Our concluding twenty-five second conversation gave me zero clues to the “millionaire’s” financial status. Then feeling compelled, I placed my hand on his shoulder: “Bless you.”

That same hand extends to all who properly nurture the children in their lives: “God bless you.”

If you do not? Change. Today can be your day to become a millionaire.