Gingham & Homespun

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off a train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment to the Harvard University President’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks, had no business at Harvard, and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge. “We want to see the president,” the man said softly. “He’ll be busy all day,” the secretary snapped. “We’ll wait,” the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t and the secretary grew frustrated, then finally decided to disturb the president. “Maybe if you see them a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she urged him. He sighed in exasperation and agreed. Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time for them. The president, stern faced and with self-dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady addressed him; “We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was very happy here. But about a year ago he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus.” The president wasn’t touched at all. “Madam,” he said gruffly, “We can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.” “Oh, no,” the lady explained quickly. “We don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.” The president rolled his eyes, and then exclaimed, “A building? Do you have any idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard!” The lady grew silent. The president was pleased. Maybe they would go away now. Then the lady turned to her husband and said, “If that’s all it takes to start a university, why don’t we just start our own?” Her husband nodded. The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. & Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away. They returned to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University; a memorial to a son that Harvard rejected. (A true story by Malcolm Forbes)
[Isaiah 53] Nearly 2000 years ago a prophet of God brought a message from God to the chosen Jewish Nation. He spoke of a kingdom that was coming, that he would be the one to establish it and would be its king. He explained that this kingdom would not be of this world, but would be a spiritual kingdom open to all the people of the world. The leaders of the Jews were too entangled in the laws and rituals of the world to spend any time with this prophet investigating his claims. They simply rejected him as a prophet of God. They rejected his message because they could not see their God as a loving and compassionate being. He was the Messiah, the Savior of the world. The one they read about in the scrolls of Isaiah. But because he didn’t speak or appear as they expected, he simply was a problem, and he needed to be gotten rid of as soon as possible. The prophet Jesus, the Son of God, paid the price himself to establish the kingdom of God, the church, by giving his life as the perfect sacrifice to God for the sins of mankind. For those who believe in the message and are baptized into the likeness of the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus, for the forgiveness of their sins, the Kingdom of God welcomes with open arms. I may be rejected by the world, but never by God, who loves me, for me.