beggar dressed but clinged on

A beggar lived near the king's palace. One day he saw a proclamation posted

outside the palace gate. The king was giving a great dinner. Anyone dressed

in royal garments was invited to the party.

The beggar went on his way. He looked at the rags he was wearing and sighed.

Surely only kings and their families wore royal robes, he thought.

Slowly an idea crept into his mind. The audacity of it made him tremble.

Would he dare?

He made his way back to the palace. He approached the guard at the gate.

"Please,sire, I would like to speak to the king."

"Wait here," the guard replied.

In a few minutes, he was back. "His majesty will see you," he said, and led

the beggar in.

"You wish to see me?" asked the king.

"Yes, your majesty. I want so much to attend the banquet, but I have no

royal robes to wear. Please, sir, if I may be so bold, may I have one of

your old garments so that I, too, may come to the banquet?"

The beggar shook so hard that he could not see the faint smile that was on

the king's face.

"You have been wise in coming to me," the king said. He called to his son,

the young prince. "Take this man to your room and array him in some of your

clothes."

The prince did as he was told and soon the beggar was standing before a

mirror, clothed in garments that he had never dared hope for.

"You are now eligible to attend the king's banquet tomorrow night," said the

prince. "But even more important, you will never need any other clothes.

These garments will last forever."

The beggar dropped to his knees. "Oh, thank you," he cried. But as he

started to leave, he looked back at his pile of dirty rags on the floor. He

hesitated. What if the prince was wrong? What if he would need his old

clothes again. Quickly he gathered them up.

The banquet was far greater than he had ever imagined, but he could not

enjoy himself as he should. He had made a small bundle of his old rags and

it kept falling off his lap. The food was passed quickly and the beggar

missed some of the greatest delicacies.

Time proved that the prince was right. The clothes lasted forever. Still the

poor beggar grew fonder and fonder of his old rags.

As time passed people seemed to forget the royal robes he was wearing. They

saw only the little bundle of filthy rags that he clung to wherever he went.

They even spoke of him as the old man with the rags.

One day as he lay dying, the king visited him. The beggar saw the sad look

on the king's face when he looked at the small bundle of rags by the bed.

Suddenly the beggar remembered the prince's words and he realized that his

bundle of rags had cost him a lifetime of true royalty. He wept bitterly at

his folly.

And the king wept with him.

We have been invited into a royal family--the family of God. To feast at

God's dinner table, all we have to do is shed our old rags and put on the

"new clothes of righteousness" of faith which is provided by God's Son,

Jesus Christ.

But we cannot hold onto our old rags. When we put our faith in Christ, we

must let go of the sin in our life, and our old ways of living. Those things

must be discarded if we are to experience true royalty and abundant life in

Christ.

"Behold, the old is passed away; the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)