December 22

Michael


Let us think about each other and help each other to show love and do good deeds. You should not stay away from the church meetings as some are doing, but you should meet together and encourage each other. Do this even more as you see the day coming.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (NCV).


I like Michael. Michael is good for me. He spurs me on, but always in a kind and loving way.

Late last week, I sat in my office knee deep in paperwork and in a funk. Michael walked in smiling, excited and full of ideas.

I wasn’t ready for him; I back pedaled and maneuvered for time.

“Right, we need to get together.” He’s right, but when?

“Those are good ideas and worth pursuing.” Maybe I do need to get out of my comfort zone….

“Let me give you a call and we’ll set something up.” And I will call. I need to call.

I’ll call because I’ve made a commitment, but Michael has made a bigger commitment. He is committed to encourage, to get together, to do … while there is still time.


Lord, thank You for Michael and for the Family of God. Help me to be an encourager too. To meet and to do. In Jesus name, Amen.

December 21

Yeshi’s Words

The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these ... you did for me.'

Matthew 25:40 (NIV)

She had never seen my face nor even heard my voice. She only knew my name, but her words caught my heart.

“I love you,” she said in some foreign tongue. She said it more than once and with such feeling, my whole body shook. I was 52 and over the hill, but she loved me and it was true…. I held up her picture—a skinny African girl in a tattered white dress.

Yeshi Wondmu, an eight-year old orphan in a country where if you reached my age you were ancient. You see, AIDS had thundered into town and mom and dad were taken. I raised my eyes again from her translated letter and saw just how different we were. She was young and black and so poor and just one of nine children….

And so, I said I’d send some money, but with three quiet words, she gave back so much more. “God bless you,” she said in a language I didn’t know. She said it more than once and vowed she would pray for me. So I bit my lip and knew that Jesus cared and lived deep inside of us. And this is the rich reward we own … the love we’d come to share.

Because she had never seen my face nor even heard my voice. She only knew my name, but her words caught my heart.


Father, help us see the needs all around us … near and far. May the blessings we bring bless You too. Amen.