SCRIPTURE: 2 Peter 1:3
(TM)
Everything that
goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting
to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best
invitation we ever received!
STORY:
In 1994, two
Christian missionaries answered an invitation from the Russian Department of
Education to teach morals and ethics in a large orphanage. About 100 boys and
girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run
program were in the orphanage.
It was nearing
Christmas and they decided to tell them the story of Christmas. It would be the
first time these children had heard the story of the birth of Christ. They told
them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the inn,
the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a
manger.
Throughout the
story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some
sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.
When the story
was finished, they gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a
crude manger. Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow
napkins that they had brought with them since no colored paper was available in
the city.
Following
instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the
manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an
American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby’s
blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt which the missionaries had also
brought with them.
It was all going
smoothly until one of the missionaries sat down at a table to help a 6 year old
boy named Misha. He had finished his manger. When the missionary looked at the
little boy’s manger, she was startled to see not one, but two babies in the
manger. Quickly, she called for the translator to ask Misha why there were two
babies in the manger.
Crossing his arms
in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, Misha began to
repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the
Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately until he came to the
part where Mary put the baby
Jesus in the manger.
Then Misha
started to ad-lib. He made up his own ending. He said, "And when Maria
laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place
to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any
place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t,
because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did.
"But I
wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I
could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good
gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift'
And Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody
ever gave me.'
"So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and
he told me I could stay with him--for always."
As little Misha
finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his
little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table
and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed.
The little orphan
had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay
with him--FOR ALWAYS.
OBSERVATION:
There are invitations and then there is THE invitation. We
really shouldn’t miss that special invitation that comes from God through
Christ. We hear it so often it has become second nature to us and yet it so
often goes on heard. When a little Russian boy can hear it once, understand it
thoroughly and accept it… why can’t we?
PRAYER:
Give the invitation again, Lord, give it again!
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