A Harp in Heaven

There was a little girl once whose mother was poor, though she was a good Christian woman. This little girl, whose name was Lillie, was very fond of music. A kind neighbor, who loved Lillie, used to let her come into her house, for an hour or so every day, and play on their piano. One day, when Lillie had just come back from this neighbor’s fine house, she felt unhappy and discontented. She thought to herself how plain and shabby our cottage home is, and how hard it is that we can’t have a piano as well as our neighbors! She felt so badly that she leaned down her head on the table, and burst into tears. Just then her mother came in.

“Why, Lillie dear, what’s the matter?”

“Oh mother, it seems hard that we should be so poor as not to be able to have a piano!”

“Never mind, daughter dear,” said her mother, “only be careful to love and serve Jesus, and then though you may not have a piano on earth, you will have a harp in heaven.”

Lillie wiped away her tears in a moment. That thought was very sweet to her. She was a Christian child. She did love Jesus. Her mother’s words seemed to set the door of heaven open before her. She had the hope of heaven in her heart, and it made her cheerful and happy. Lillie has grown to be a woman now; but she has never forgotten her mother’s words. And many a time when she could not have what she wanted, she has said to herself, as if whispering over her mothers saying, “Never mind, I may not have a piano on earth, but I shall have a harp in heaven.”