“I will rejoice
greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with
garments of salvation, He has wrapped me in a robe of righteousness as a
bridegroom decks himself with a garland, As a bride adorns herself with her
jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).
Hey Gang: I asked the question many times of kids whose
lives were reaping the dividends of bad decisions, “My name is Kermit, I am a
green- Genie frog and I can give you anything, the deepest desire of your
heart, what would it be? No matter how
hardened the hurting soul was in front of me the answer was always the same, to
have my mom and dad together and my brothers and sisters together in a loving-
warm home.
I learned very early in my tenure of working with hurting
children I could never give them what they wanted the most – a mom and dad
together who loved them on a quiet street where dad would play catch with their
son or mom would give here undivided time with her daughter.
We have a very special friend who was rejected at birth by
her mother and put up for adoption. She
was truly blessed to find her way into a warm loving family who loved her as
her very own. But even though she loved
her adopted mom, as she matured in years she wondered, as she passed every
woman on the street, “Was that was her real mother?”
As she neared her graduation day from high school and thought
of the next step in her life, there was the growing yearning in her heart just
to know who her mom was and why she gave her up for adoption. The day came when
she put her yeaning into action and, through the grace of Almighty God, after
many closed doors, the one that led to a grand reunion of mother and daughter finally
came.
Did it lessen the love she had for her adoption mother? In no way.
But as she has said many times when she saw her birth mother for the
first time a peace came over her and she felt like she was complete for the
first time in her life.
In one of the previous Morning Messages I mentioned I spent
a couple years in close contact with the Amish community of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, and a close observer of what made their family life so very
special. The Amish have a saying, “The
dearest things of life are mostly near at hand”. Think about that for a moment. What are the important things in your life?
Gar Trussley was a “Time Share Expert” who studied how
people use their time. He discovered,
when he asked people to list their top ten priorities, that more than ninety
percent of the three tops on the list was get
heart right with God, fix problems in
marriage and repair problems in other
relationships. But he also
discovered that a similar number, when asked to make a second list, those ten things in the order of how they
stack up in the reality of how they are living their lives right now, he found the
top ones to be at the bottom of their list!
I love to tell the story of the father and the rabbit
hutch. It is a wonderful example of the
priorities of two fathers, one Amish and One English (as the Amish refer to
non-Amish.) The Amishman’s seven-year
old son was the recipient of a gift of two young bunnies. Dad took son to the local hardware store and
bought all the needed materials to build a home for the bunnies and then step
by step he and his son built a very sturdy rabbit hutch for the newly arrived
bunnies.
His neighbor also had a son of the same age who noticed the
Amish father and son at work and came to see what they were doing. When he learned they were building a rabbit
hutch he said to the Amish Dad, “Hey, you can buy a hutch on sale for half what
you are investing in time and material and it is already built.
The Amish father’s response, “I drew the plans for the hutch
with the help and advice of my son. We went and purchased the materials
together and learned about purchasing and marketing. We have learned to use a
tape to measure, a hammer and a saw to cut.
Soon the hutch will be ready for occupancy and my son will feel the
pride of accomplishment every time he feeds the rabbits.”
What lessons would he have learned if we just bought the
finished product? Jesus said there is
no greater gift than for someone, -a father, who would lay down for his life
for a son. Teaching quality living is a gift that cannot be purchased – except with
love and time.
So, take if from an old salt who has asked the question, “If
I, a green-genii frog can give you anything you want this morning, what would
it be? If they say trinkets and glitter
or new electronic gadget, you have some work to do now!
Gramps
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