Category: Relationships with Others

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Short Story: The Boy with the Harmonica

Harmonica

Jaden couldn’t believe the amazing gift his father had given him: his very own harmonica! He quickly mastered the implement and loved playing it.

He began playing it all day. He played it early in the morning before anyone else woke up.

“Stop it!” His brother groaned, rolling over in bed, but Jaden didn’t care. He kept playing.

He played it next to his other brother while he was studying. “Stop it!” His brother pleaded, but Jaden just kept playing. It was kind of fun to annoy him.

He played it instead of doing his own studying and chores, not caring if he got anything else done. Playing the harmonica was all that mattered.

He played it during lunch, making it impossible for anyone to talk at the table. He kept playing, hoping someone would notice how great of a player he’d become.

Jaden finally stopped when he heard his father’s voice summoning him.

“Jaden,” his father said quietly, “why do you think I gave you the harmonica?”

Jaden thought for a minute. “Because you knew I’d like it?”

His father smiled. “Why else do you think?”

Jaden wasn’t quite sure. He looked at his father questioningly.

“I gave it to you to bless others with music. Music can make people smile. It can help pass weary hours. But do you think you’ve used it as a blessing today?”

Jaden thought of his brothers’ reactions. They hadn’t seemed blessed. “No-oo,” he admitted.

His father nodded. “Remember, son, your gift is to bless others, not to serve yourself, annoy your brothers, or get attention. Okay?”

Jaden nodded. He needed to remember the purpose of his gift.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 1 Peter 4:10 (ESV)

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Short Story: Deal with the Mess

“Just stuff it in the closet!” Johnny heard his mom call out. They were all frantically cleaning the house for company.

Johnny opened the closet door cautiously. It was stuffed to overflowing with other things they’d just “stuffed in the closet” before. He shook his head. What a mess!

He knew it wasn’t just the closet either. The basement, garage, and other closed-off places all needed hazmat suits to enter. They were running out of space to stuff; what would they do then?

“What are you doing?” Johnny asked his mom. The hallway was filled with stuff—stuff he hadn’t seen in what felt like forever. Where had it all come from?

“We are cleaning out the closet…and the then the basement and garage,” his mother replied, wiping sweat off her forehead.

“Ummm, Mom, it looks worse now. We can’t even walk through the hallway.”

Mom sighed. “I know. Facing the mess is no fun, and it does look worse. But it’s the only way to get it all better. We need to deal with the junk, not just hide it. And then once we do,” she added with determination, “we’re going to keep dealing with it instead of trying to hide it.”

Mom’s organizing project seemed to take forever. The whole house, not just hideaways, felt overrun for a time. But then, order—true order—arrived. Johnny could find his toys again…and his roller blades. In the end, it had been worth it to not just hide everything away.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 (ESV)

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Like Sandpaper

thankful

“Go set this on the kitchen table.”

Ruby grabbed plate and “thankful” tag her mom and put together and set it carefully on the kitchen table. She paused just a second to feel the smoothness of the wood. A faint smile crept across her face as she remembered that table’s history.

When they’d first gotten the table, they all got splinters from it. “Ouch!” was the most common word spoken at the dinner table that night.

That’s when Ruby’s dad had hauled the table to the garage and begun sanding on it. Ruby had just been a little girl, but her father had let her watch as he rubbed rough paper against the wood’s grains. “You’re hurting the table!” Ruby had protested, but her father had just smiled. He knew what she didn’t–that this sandpaper was exactly what that table really needed.

He’d been right. The table after sanding and finishing no longer produced splinters. It served its purpose and had been blessing them all since.

Ruby snapped back to the present, thinking about the things in her life that felt a little uncomfortable, like sandpaper. Maybe she should really be thankful for the situations and people that rubbed her wrong. Perhaps they were meant to somehow transform her like the sandpaper had this table.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
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Warning: Restoration in Process

Old House

No one could see what Tim saw in that old house. They saw brokenness; he saw potential. They saw chipped paint, falling gutters, and a leaky roof–not to mention dirt everywhere and enough cobwebs to catch an ant farm. He saw the builder’s original intent–and what that house could one day be.

Others couldn’t understand why Tim worked hour after hour, nailing in broken pieces, sanding down the chipped paint. His hands often got splinters or ached from his labors, but he didn’t stop. He spent lots of money, but he didn’t care. He saw not what was, but what would be–and that house had been made to shine.

You see, Tim knew something the others didn’t. He knew what the house had been built to be…because he’d built it. A terrible disaster had destroyed the home many years back, but Tim wouldn’t give up on that old house.

It took years–one could even say a lifetime–but one day others saw it too. No one could recognize in the elegant mansion the once forsaken home.

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 (ESV)

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:16 (ESV)

Thought: God is in the business of restoring what sin has ruined. In Christ, we’re new creations (2 Cor. 5:16), but we still often look like a messed up version of what God intended. Lord, give us eyes to see one another as You see them.