Precious Gifts



Yesterday a butterfly
Came floating gently through the sky.
He soared up through the atmosphere
Then drifted close enough to hear.

I said, "I'd love to fly with you
And sail around the way you do.
It looks like it would be such fun
To fly up toward the summer sun.

But I have not your graceful charm.
I haven't wings, just these two arms.
I've been designed to walk around.
My human feet must touch the ground.

Then magically he spoke to me
and told me what his wish would be.

He said, "What I'd love most to do
Is walk upon God's Earth with you,
To squish its mud between my toes
Or touch my finger to my nose.

I'd love just once to walk around
With human feet to touch the ground,
But I have not two legs that swing,
I haven't arms, just these two wings."

And so we went our separate ways
In wonder and surprise.
For we'd both seen God's precious gifts
Through someone else's eyes.

Author Unknown

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters:  You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

James 1:19



A Mother's Sacrifice



picture from National Geographic

This is a true story of a mother’s sacrifice during the Japanese earthquake in 2011.

After the earthquake subsided, the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house. They saw her dead body through the cracks. However, her pose was strange as she knelt on her knees like a person that is worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting by an object. The collapsed house had crashed on her back and head.

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescue team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure.

He and the rest of the team left the house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the house of the dead woman. This time, he knelt down and passed his hand through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, ''A child! There is a child!''

The whole team worked together. They carefully removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a three month old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. The woman had obviously made an ultimate sacrifice to save her son. She had used her body to protect her son when the house collapsed. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to examine the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passed around from one hand to another among the rescuers. Everybody that read the message wept.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

1 John 3:16