[dwashbur]

I love this story. The temple tax collectors come to Peter and say "Does your master intend to pay the tax, or not?"

Peter: Uhhhhhhhh, yes? [Wander inside, ready to ask]

Jesus: Riddle me this, Simon. Do kings collect taxes from their own children or from other people?

Peter: Uhhhhhhhh, other people?

Jesus: [flashing a little smile, enjoying his own little joke] The sons are exempt, then. Still, we don't want to cause a fuss, so go fishing.

Peter: Yeah, I'll catch a mess of fish and sell them for enough -

Jesus: Just one fish.

Peter: Uhhhhhhhh, gimme that again?

Jesus: Just one fish. It'll be enough.

Peter: I hope it's a really big fish, because if that's all I have to sell -

Jesus: Don't sell it. Look in its mouth.

Peter: Uhhhhhhhh.....

Jesus: Don't worry. You'll find a stater coin that's enough to pay the tax for both of us.

Peter: Do I want to know how it got there?

Jesus: [Reflecting back to when he watched that coin fall out of the tax collector's purse into the water, where the fish tried to eat it] Probably not.

[jlisenbe]

I like that one as well. Interesting how God's plans are so very different from ours. We always think in the natural. God thinks on a different level. The story of the feeding of the multitude illustrates the same point. "Where are we to buy enough bread to feed these thousands???"