what would you do if you were rich?

I teach a lesson to a roomful of children with their clothes turned wrongside out (the crazy theme for our club tonight). 

I tell them how rich we are.  Did they think they were rich when they walked in the door?  No, they answer.  But I tell them how other kids in the world don’t have water or don’t have clean water.  How kids go hungry.  I tell them about seeing a boy their age in Africa who was wearing a dress (a tattered, too-big dress –obviously the only clothing he can find).  I tell them about hundreds of thousands in Lima, Peru who have no doctor. 

And then I read them Jesus’ words. 

It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  (Matthew 19:23) 

We’re the rich ones, kids.  We’re filthy rich.   

Did you eat more than one meal today? Did you have a choice of what clothing to wear?  Were you able to take a bath?  Yes, they say.  We’re the rich ones. 

And we cannot serve both God and money.  (Matthew 6:23) 

Class is over, and this one beautiful child asks could she please talk to me for a minute.  So we find a step, and I pat for her to sit snuggled up close to me.  And she tells me how she and her friends went in together to come up with $3.00 so their poor friend could buy a recorder for the school music class.   

Entering the kingdom of heaven requires a strict view of money.  Money is for sharing not for loving.  Money is for easing stomach hunger and for buying a slum-living little boy some pants and a shirt.  Money is for buying a recorder for a friend who can’t afford one. 

What would you do if you were rich?