A teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down in the space by their name. Over the weekend the teacher collated the compliments given to each student by their classmate. On Monday she gave each student their list and before long the entire class was smiling. “I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!” and “I didn’t know others liked me so much” were some of the comments. Well, no one ever mentioned those papers again. She never knew if her students discussed them among themselves or with their parents, but it really didn’t matter because she felt the exercise had accomplished its purpose. Several years later the same teacher attended the funeral of one of those same students, killed in Vietnam. The church was filled with his young friends one by one filing past his coffin. As she stood near the coffin a pallbearer soldier walked up to her, “I understand you were Mark’s math teacher.” She nodded, “Yes”. Then he said, “Mark talked about you a lot.” After the funeral at a luncheon Mark’s parents approached her. “We want to show you something”, his father said pulling a paper from a jacket pocket. “They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.” It was two worn pieces of paper patched with strips of tape from opening and folding them back many times. The teacher knew immediately they were the papers she had prepared for Mark long ago. “Thank you for doing that” Mark’s mother said. “As you can see he treasured it.” Mark’s friends, her ex-students, began to gather around and tell her of the papers they still have from that enlightening Monday. The teacher sat down and began to cry. She had performed this exercise only once, with one class, but had no idea the impact it had on the lives of those involved. She now realized everyone needs to know they are loved and they need to be told so often.
[Romans 8:28-39] Do you have one of those keepsakes that came from someone with love? I do. It’s a paper my son wrote in an English class at the beginning of school in 1981. It’s personal and I’m not going to share it with you, but it still means a lot to me today. I’m probably the worst of the worst when it comes to telling anyone how much they mean to me or how great a person I think they are. But I’m trying to become more like Paul by telling all kinds of people that God loves them and is very concerned with their well being. I want people to know that God has given them something very precious in the Bible. God has seen to it that through His son mankind can understand that death is not the end of life. God is preparing a place right now to receive those who read and follow the precepts of living He has sent to us and has had recorded for us by righteous men He appointed. I thank God for Paul (Saul), because God’s love and power shines like a beacon in the letters he wrote. Did God truly send His only begotten Son to become a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind? (Acts 9:1-31) The conversion of Paul tells me YES! If God saw a great person in Saul, how great a person you must be in His eyes. How precious is God’s Word to you? Are the pages worn and perhaps patched with a piece of tape here and there? Do you treasure you Bible and keep it near? Read it often and discover just how precious you are to God. He loves you like nobody else can.
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