WHY WE GO THROUGH ‘STUFF’

Nancy Bauer, Washington

 

 

     A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I AM BLIND, PLEASE HELP.” There were only a few coins in that hat.

 

     A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

 

     Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

 

     The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”

     What he had written was “TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY AND I CANNOT SEE IT.”

     (author unknown)

 

      In Galations 6:1,2 , the Message Bible says:

      “Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens and so complete Christ’s law.”

 

      There’s another story, told by Jesus about three men who walked by a beaten and dying man.

 

      The first man was a priest. You would have thought he’d stop….HE DIDN’T!

      The second man was a religious man, who knew all God’s rules. You would have thought he’d stop….BUT HE DIDN’T!

     

The third man was a Samaritan…from a race of people that were hated and ignored by most. But that didn’t matter to him, because HE STOPPED!

   

  Not only did he stop, but he mended the man’s wounds, took him to an inn and paid for all that was needed.

     

Maybe he’d once been there himself and he’d gotten through it!

 

      I think the Samaritan changed the wounded man’s sign to read, “TODAY IS A BEAUTIFUL DAY..AND NOW I SEE IT!”

 

      If WE don’t stop to help each other, who will? It only takes ONE person, stopping ONE time, and helping ONE person to make a difference.

 

      All it may take is a smile, a kind word, a hug….OR A NEW SIGN!

 

     In 2 Corinthians 1:3,4, the Message Bible says:

      “…Jesus, the Messiah...comes along side us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings US alongside someone else who is going through hard times, so that we can be there for that person, just as God was there for us.”

 

     The Bible teaches us that sometimes we go through “stuff” so that later, we can help others that are going through that same “stuff”,

   

 

      Today I pray that we SEE the beauty that God put in this world and in each other! I pray that God’s blessings and favor SMOTHER you! I pray that “WE ARE ABLE TO SEE THE BEAUTY IN OURSELVES AND IN EACH OTHER! And in this world!

                        

Nancy “Umma” Bauer