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What a wonderful gift!

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Built on a Rock

Ron Mehl tells the following story in his book, “The Ten(der) Commandments.”
I love the story I heard about an eight-year-old boy who sat in class, taking a test.  He became so nervous and distraught about completing the test on time that he suddenly wet his pants. Horrors! He looked down and saw a little puddle there beneath him. Sick with worry and embarrassment, he looked up just in time to see his teacher motioning him to her desk. But how could he move? What would he do? Noticing that the boy seemed frozen in his chair, the teacher got up from her desk and began walking down the aisle toward him. Oh, no, he groaned to himself. What in the world am I going to do now? She’s going to see this puddle and everybody will laugh. It’s going to be horrible.
What he didn’t know was at that very moment one of his classmates, a little girl, was coming down the aisle from behind him carrying a large fishbowl. When she got up alongside him, she suddenly lurched and dropped the heavy bowl. It shattered with a loud crash and sent water, broken glass and displaced fish flying everywhere. Now covered by fish tank water, the boy sat there thinking, “Thank God! Thank God!  There IS a God in heaven! What a wonderful gift! What a wonderful girl!”
But then it dawned on him that little boys don’t even like little girls. He couldn’t possibly let the incident pass.  He looked at her and said, “What’s wrong with you, you clumsy clod? Can’t you watch where you’re going?” As the class laughed at the girl, the teacher took the boy (now covered by dignity) to the gym class to get him some dry clothes to wear.
At lunchtime, no one wanted to sit with the girl. Her friends avoided her at recess. In the unforgiving society of elementary school, she was suddenly a plague and a pariah.
When the day was over and the boy was on his way home, he walked out the door and saw her. All the kids were leaving, but she was walking by herself, along the fence. He began to reflect on what had happened that day and suddenly on an impulse walked over to her.
“You know,” he said, “I’ve been thinking about what happened today.  That wasn’t an accident, was it?  You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, “I did do it on purpose. I knew what had … happened to you. You see, I wet my pants once, too.”
I heard this story and thought, Lord, I don’t want to ever forget what You have done for me. I, too, have wet my pants. But you covered me. You spilled your precious blood for me and covered my sins. You took all of my shame upon yourself. Now I’m clean. You have fit me for heaven, even though I deserved hell. You saw my hopeless situation and rescued me. You have given me dignity and hope and a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
 
 
 

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