Even as I drove to youth tonight, I still wasn't quite sure what to share. I started reflecting on the past few Christmases. I even moved beyond the actual Christmas day and began to think about the entire Christmas season in hopes something would come from that. And just a few minutes before it was my turn to share God laid on my heart the Christmas memory. And it's the story I share with you tonight. It's a memory that I haven't thought about in years. But I'm thankful that God brought it to mind...because I needed to be reminded of it tonight.
Christmas Break 2006. I was a freshman in college and I had only just given my life to God during the summer. The opportunity came for me to spend the first week of break with my Granddaddy and a group from His church serving a neighborhood in Gulfport, Mississippi that was still recovering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina (this was about a year and half after the storm had hit).
We held a Christmas break Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids. We were able to share God's love with them through simple things like crafts, games, and just talking to them. Each day we had quite few kids. There was one little boy (I unfortunately can't remember his name :( ) who absolutely drove me crazy. He didn't listen, he wasn't respectful to anyone, he picked on the other kids. (I later learned he came from a very sad home life and I know that's why his behavior was the way it was...he didn't know any better). I remember getting very frustrated with him on several occasions while I was there. To be honest I didn't particularly like this little boy. But he's the one I remember the most vividly from my time in Mississippi.
Towards the end of the week we held a yard sell for the community. We laid out the items which so many people had given and the people in the community were invited to take what they needed. We didn't charge anything, so it wasn't really a yard sell...more like a yard give. In this yard give there were lots of things for children. And there were these hot pink, Barbie roller-skates. Obviously, being hot pink and Barbie-themed and the size of them indicated they were meant for a little girl about 4-years-old. However, this little boy who had driven me crazy all week and was about 10-years-old decided he needed them. I remember approaching him and a little girl who these skates were perfect for as I had heard them arguing over them. Even though they were for a girl and didn't fit him, this little boy was determined to have the skates or at least not let the girl have them. I finally said, "I have a pair of rollar-blades at home in my closet, if you give these skates to this little girl I promise as soon as I get home I will mail you the rollar-blades." With a look filled with a great deal doubt and mistrust, he consented.
The week ended and I returned to Florida just in time for Christmas. When I got home I dug out the old rollar-blades. It amazes me that I even still had them. I was 18-years-old at the time and I probably hadn't used them since the 5th grade, maybe the 6th grade. I had kept them, moved them from Miami to Lake Placid, and still never used them. I had let them take up valuable closet space and simply gather dust for almost 8 years. Wiping the dust off of them, I packed them in a box and mailed the rollar-blades to Mississippi.
A few weeks later I received a card in the mail from the woman who ran the community center. She wrote of how when she had given this little boy the skates, he said, "She promised! She kept her promise!" Her note went on to say too many had not kept their promises to this little boy and it really meant something that I had kept mine.
I share this story with you to remind us all of one thing. Something I needed to be reminded of today. Something I am so thankful for...
GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES!
He cannot break them. Last week the kids at our after-school program did an interactive nativity scene and read a poem as they placed each character in the nativity. The poem, "God always does what He says, He never lies." He never lies. Read in the Bible - every promise made was a promise kept...Adam and Eve were given the promise that one day the serpent would be crushed...Abraham would have a son in his and his wife's old age and become the father to more "children" than there are stars in the sky...Moses would be given the words to say...Rahab would be saved...David would become king...the Israelites and the world would receive a Savior...
And that Savior came down at Christmastime (at least that's when we celebrate). In an odd way, a strange way, a humble way Christ came down. He was the promise. He is our promise. We celebrate how God fulfilled His promise of sending a Savior at Christmas...we celebrate how far God would reach, how far He would go to show us His love. To give us life.
He always keeps His promises...ALWAYS :)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
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