A True Story
A soldier was finally coming
home
after having fought in Vietnam.
He called his parents from San
Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to
ask.
I'd like to bring a friend home with me."
"Sure" They
replied. "We'd love to meet him."
"There is something you should
know", the son continued. "He was hurt pretty badly in the fighting.
He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm and leg. He has nowhere else to go,
and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear
that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want
him to live with us."
"Son," Said the father,"
You don't know what you are asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden to us.
We have our own life to live and we can't let something like this interfere with
our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy.
He'll find a way to live on his own. "
At that point, the son hung up
the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police.
Their son had died after falling from a building. They were told.
The police believed it was suicide.
The grief stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue
to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something
they didn't know their son had only one arm and leg.
He himself was the man he wanted to bring home to his Mom and Dad.
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We are so much like the parents in this story. We find it easy to love
those who are good looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who
inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable, We would rather stay
away from people who aren't healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.
We don't want the inconvience that true love brings into our lives.
"Jesus said depart from me ... and they replied Lord when did we not love you and help you?
And Jesus said when you didn't do it for one of the least of these then you didn't
do it to me."
God comes in many disguises.
God loves us with an unconditional love and welcomes us into his family forever, regardless of how messed up we are.
"For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16(KJV)We are to reach out to others.
