Love’s Greatest Gift 爱的大礼
Dexu Xia
We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Isaiah 53:6
My son Geoff was leaving a store when he saw an abandoned walking frame (a mobility aid) on the ground. I hope there isn’t a person back there who needs help, he thought. He glanced behind the building and found a homeless man unconscious on the pavement.
Geoff roused him and asked if he was okay. “I’m trying to drink myself to death,” he responded. “My tent broke in a storm, and I lost everything. I don’t want to live.”
Geoff called a Christian rehabilitation ministry, and while they waited for help, he ran home briefly and brought the man his own camping tent. “What’s your name?” Geoff asked. “Geoffrey,” the homeless man answered, “with a G.” Geoff hadn’t mentioned his own name or its uncommon spelling. “Dad,” he told me later, “that could have been me.”
Geoff once struggled with substance abuse himself, and he helped the man because of the kindness he’d received from God. Isaiah the prophet used these words to anticipate God’s mercy to us in Jesus: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
Christ, our Savior, didn’t leave us lost, alone, and hopeless in despair. He chose to identify with us and lift us in love, so that we may be set free to live anew in Him. There’s no greater gift.
Where would you be without Jesus? How can you be His hands and feet for someone in need?
Thank You, Jesus, for coming to rescue me. Help me to join in Your search-and-rescue mission and to share Your love with someone who needs You today.
我们都如羊走迷，各人偏行己路。—以赛亚书53章6节
我儿子杰夫在离开一家商店时，看到一个助行器（辅助行动的用具）翻倒在地上。他心想：这附近该不会有人昏倒需要帮助吧！他朝建筑物后面看了一下，果然发现一名流浪汉躺在人行道上不醒人事。
杰夫叫醒了他，问他是否还好。他回答说：“我想醉死算了！暴风雨毁掉我的帐篷，我什么都没有了，我不想活了！”
杰夫打电话给一个基督教中途之家请求协助，在等待的时候，杰夫赶回家拿自己的帐篷，送给那名流浪汉。杰夫问他说：“你叫什么名字？”对方说：“杰夫，杰出的杰。”先前我儿子并没有告诉他自己的名字。后来，儿子感慨地对我说：“爸爸，我也可能沦落到他那样的地步。”
儿子曾因滥用药物而苦苦挣扎，他能帮助这个人，是因为他已经从上帝得着了怜悯和恩慈。先知以赛亚说：“我们都如羊走迷，各人偏行己路。耶和华使我们众人的罪孽都归在祂身上”（以赛亚书53章6节），就是预言上帝要藉着耶稣，使我们得蒙怜悯。
我们的救主基督没有让你我在绝望中迷失、孤独且毫无指望。祂选择来与我们一同受苦，以爱释放我们，使我们得享自由，靠祂重获新生。世上没有比这更美好的礼物了！
如果没有耶稣，你会成为什么样的人？
你如何成为耶稣的手和脚，
去帮助有需要的人呢？
耶稣，谢谢祢来拯救我。帮助我加入祢的搜救任务，
今天就与需要祢的人分享祢的爱。