Ned didn’t like school, until fifth grade. That year he had a very special teacher named Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams was especially kind to his students, and that made Ned like school a lot more. Mr. Williams showed how much he cared about his students in many ways. On recess, he often spent time with Ned by playing the guitar while Ned played his cello, even though he probably had a lot of work he could have been doing. He also noticed when Ned was having a bad day and asked him about it. He ran a race with another student that challenged him to
a race.
Ned got to have Mr. Williams as his teacher for sixth grade, too. Near the end of sixth grade, Mr. Williams and some other teachers took everyone in sixth grade to a special camp for three days. There the students learned new skills and had a lot of fun doing things they didn’t normally do. The kids got to choose what to do during the day ... things like hiking, painting, leather working, swimming, fishing, canoeing and shooting bows and arrows. At night, the students acted in short plays and sang songs, enjoying cozy campfires in the dark before going to sleep in their cabins.
Ned had a great time at camp with the boys in his group and Mr. Williams. Then one day he got a bag of chips at a meal. Chips were a special treat to Ned, because he didn’t get them very often at home. But Ned wasn’t hungry when he got the chips, and he wanted to go play, so he stuffed the bag into his pocket to eat later. As he crawled into his sleeping bag that night, he opened the bag quietly. No one was around to tell him not to eat the chips in the cabin, so he started eating the crunchy chips in the dark, thinking no one would know.
However, it wasn’t long before Mr. Williams came into the room and asked, “Is someone eating chips?”
What had made Mr. Williams wonder? Ned didn’t know! Had he heard the crunching? Had someone told on him? Ned didn’t answer, and Mr. Williams finally left the room without discovering who was eating against the rules.
As soon as he was gone, someone whispered loudly, “Hey, give me one of those chips.” Mr. Williams must have been standing on the other side of the door, waiting for clues that would tell him whether one of the boys really did have chips, because in an instant, he was back. He asked again, “Who’s got the chips?”
Ashamed, Ned admitted that he had the chips, and he gave them to Mr. Williams.
Now Ned felt awful. But it wasn’t because he had been caught or because he had lost the chips. It was because he had offended Mr. Williams, the friend who had been so kind to him. Now it didn’t matter to him how Mr. Williams had found out that he was disobeying. He didn’t even care what his friends thought about him. All he could think of was how much he must have hurt Mr. Williams who had been so kind to him.
Proverbs 9:1010The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10) tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This story shows us a picture of what the fear of the Lord is. Ned felt bad about doing a wrong thing against Mr. Williams because he was so good and kind to him. Mr. Williams was a loving teacher and a good friend, but he was nothing compared to God. God takes care of us all day and all night, loves us more than anyone else ever could, and made the biggest possible sacrifice in giving His Son Jesus to pay for our sins so we can spend eternity in heaven with Him someday. Even what we think of as a little sin cost Jesus so much to pay for that we can’t begin to understand it. If we think about how much God loves and cares for us, it will make us want to be careful not to grieve Him ... not to do bad things, called sins, since all sin is really against God. Jesus said, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” (John 14:2323Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)). If we love God, we will want to obey Him, and then we can keep on enjoying His love.
Messages of God’s Love 8/27/2023