True Wealth

One afternoon in 1953, the mayor and city officials gathered with reporters at the Chicago railroad station. They were expecting a famous man who had won the 1952 Nobel Peace prize.A giant of a man stepped off the train, six-feet-four, with bushy hair and a full mustache. The cameras began to flash and the mayor stepped forward with his hand outstretched to greet him. They began to lavish praise and honors on him but he asks them to excuse him for a moment. Looking over the heads of the crowd this big man began to push through to the back of the platform.

There he approached an elderly black woman who was struggling as she tried to carry two large suitcases. He picked up the bags in his big hands and, smiling, escorted the woman to a bus. As he helped her aboard, he wished her a safe journey.

Meanwhile, the crowd tagged along behind him. He turned to them and said, "Sorry to have kept you waiting." The man was Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous missionary to Africa who earned the Noble Peace prize helping the poor. he was wealthy beyond measure but needed not one bank vault to hold his wealth.