Love Found A Way To Help Us Series

Love Found a Way to Help Us

May 12, 2001

“Judy Rogers, now a woman, remembers the year her father was laid off work. Family finances, already lean, became leaner still.

“Christmas was coming, and for months Judy’s father had been promising his wife a new dishwasher. That good woman was still recuperating from breast cancer surgery, making it painful to do some of the usual household chores.

“But a dishwasher? It seemed impossible- or at least wildly improbable. Where would the money come from? They were barely able to make payments on their medical bills and still make the mortgage as it was. In addition, the house had old wiring and plumbing. Even if they were somehow able to scrape together the money to buy such a luxury, it could never be installed without major remodeling.

“Another man might have shrunk before such barriers and obstacles. But Judy’s dad had made a promise, and he was a man who took his promises seriously. Somehow, he would find a way to do it.

“Judy remembered how her father hated the thought of even touching dirty dishes. He was a man’s man, and in the world he’d grown up in, men stayed out of the kitchen (excepting an occasional foray to raid the refrigerator). He had said on several occasions he would rather tackle almost any hard outdoor chore he could think of than face a stack of dirty dinnerware in the sink.

“But then again… how could he let his wife do work that was hurting her? Of course, she always minimized the discomfort. Said it was nothing. She’d be fine, she said. She looked fine too- to most everyone else- and held on to the smile so treasured by her friends.

“But her husband knew better. He’d heard the sighs- and those times when a stab of pain made her catch her breath. He saw the shadows of weariness under her eyes.

“He had to find a way. Judy remembered him brooding in the days leading up to Christmas- staring out the window at the gray winter skies, his hands in his pockets. He was always a capable, resourceful man, but this mountain seemed too large for even him to climb.

“Christmas Day came with no mysterious deliveries. No large box appeared next to the tree. There were no visits from the plumber or the electrician. There was nothing but a few carefully wrapped gifts under the tree.

“And a small envelope.

“Within the envelope was a note- a handwritten letter from Dad. The note read:

For one year, I will wash all of the dirty dishes in this household… every one.

And he did.”

What an incredible story, but it reminds us of what God has done for us. He saw our predicament. He knows our weaknesses and failings. He has heard our sighs, seen our tears, and weighed burdens in our heart that no one else sees or knows.

But how could a holy God redeem and help sinful man? To the angels in heaven looking on, it must have seemed so impossible. But angels know, better than most, that this is a God who takes His promises very, very seriously. If He committed Himself to help, He certainly would.

And He did. But not in a way any man or angel or demon might have expected. He did it by giving Himself. He did it by rolling up His sleeves and stepping personally into His own sin-controlled creation. In the face of impossible obstacles, God found a way.

The coming of Jesus to the world speaks strongly of God’s personal gift to us all. If we consider the beginning of His life and the time of His birth, there was an angel, whose mind must have been filled with wonder and awe, and who must have been grappling with the implications of it all, when he told the shepherds:

Luke 2.11- “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

FOR UNTO YOU… It’s very personal! Have you considered that? Have you ever let that thought weave its way through your meditations and memories? God designed the coming of Jesus as a baby with YOU in mind. He came personally for YOU. The Saviour was born “unto YOU.”

I need to wrestle with the realization of how special Jesus’ coming is in contemplating the fact that, somehow, in some incomprehensible way, He was thinking about ME when He came. What he did, He did for me. What He gave, He gave for me. What he suffered, He suffered for my sake. And He held nothing back.

IS BORN… It’s miraculous, because the Holy Spirit has conceived what, to us, was inconceivable. The celebration of the coming of Jesus, in Christmas, isn’t something conjured up for men for the purpose of self-congratulation; it celebrates the moment when God stepped out of heaven’s radiance into the cold stream of time and space. You and I couldn’t lift a finger to redeem ourselves, so He made that long journey to be our help.