SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

I remember my husband using the following illustration in a sermon many years ago. I just ran across it in a book I am reading and wanted to share it with you today.

The phone rang in a high society Boston home. On the other end of the line was a son who had just returned from Viet Nam and was calling from California. His folks were the cocktail-circuit, party kind -- drinking, wife-swapping, gambling, all the other things that go with it. The boy said to his mother, "I just called to tell you that I wanted to bring a buddy home with me." His mother said, 'Sure, bring him along for a few days.' "But, mother, there is something you need to know about this boy. One leg is gone, one arm's gone, one eye's gone, and his face is quite disfigured. Is it all right if I bring him home?"

His mother said, "Bring him home for a few days." The son said, "You didn't understand me, mother. I want to bring him home to live with us." The mother began to make all kinds of excuses about embarrassment and what people would think. . . and the phone clinked.

A few hours later the police called from California to Boston. The mother picked up the phone again. The police sergeant at the other end said, "We just found a boy with one arm, one leg, one eye and a mangled face, who has just killed himself with a shot in the head. The identification papers on the body say he is your son."

- Dale E. Galloway, Rebuild Your Life

I can't even begin to imagine how that mother must have felt when she found out it was her son. Isn't it wonderful to know that if we are a child of God he knows everything about the condition we are in and he accepts us. Not only that but one day all the deformities will be taken away. I love what Joni Eareckson Tada says about it. She is so looking forward to walking, running and jumping again. But for now, she thanks God that she has the problems she has. What a great lesson for all of us.

I hope you will visit our Spiritual Sundays blog to share with us there or just to click on the links there to read what others have shared and be blessed. Here is the link: http://bloggerspirit.blogspot.com/