April Fool

APRIL FOOL

young boy had a fiery temper and it often caused him to do and say unkind things. One day, after an argument had sent one of his friends home in tears, his father told him that for each thoughtless, mean thing he would do from now on, he would drive a nail into their gatepost. Every time he did a kindness or good deed, a nail would be removed.

Months passed, Every time the child passed the gate, he was reminded of the reasons for those ever-increasing nails, until finally; getting them out of the gate post became the challenge for his life.

At last the wished-for day arrived -- only one more nail! As his father pulled it, he danced around exclaiming, "See Daddy, the nails are all gone." The father gazed at the gatepost and then thoughtfully replied, "Yes, the nails are gone -- but the scars remain."

In the coming days, sin will drive nails into the hands of Our Savior. The sound of the nails piercing both the hands and our heart will be strong and painful. But there will come a day when the nails will be removed, and all that will be left is scars. They are as necessary as the nails for people to know the depth of Jesus’ love.

Will you continually try to remove the nails from your hearts? Will you look deeply at the scars of your life and see so fully that God has fooled the devil. Satan tried to claim you, but Jesus shows the scars so you will know for sure the depth of the battle that God was willing to do for you and me.

Loving God, come into our hearts today and encourage us. Many times we see the scars and feel they are times of destruction and failure, but in the depths of the scars we find the energy of Your love. In Christ's blessed name we pray. Amen.

This has been Rev. Jim Massey. Next week we will talk about waiting. I know for some of us it is the most difficult thing we have to do. Maybe this will help?