The Love of Jesus
If you have spent any time at all driving around the city of Paramaribo, you can’t help noticing the number of men who walk with crutches, and not a day goes by that you don’t see at least one man who is missing a leg. This could be due to the many motorcycle accidents that occur here or the cause can be diabetes or they have suffered a stroke. They don’t have an opportunity to work and they are not able to afford a walking cane or a crutch. They use a stick or an umbrella, or whatever they can find. Last year we started carrying walking canes and crutches in the back of our car and we have had several opportunities to help someone who is in need. It is always a blessing for us.
Sometimes it can be inconvenient to stop what we are doing in order to help someone else. Their circumstances may lead us to say, “God, what good can I do?” Just like the people in the parable of the Good Samaritan, we often choose to look the other way, walk on by, find a reason to avoid getting involved. But that is not what Jesus taught us to do.
This is our friend Darrel. About 15 years ago he had a stroke which left him paralyzed on his left side. Last year when we returned to Suriname we began to see him often, walking very very slowly, using a small stick for support. Following the stroke, he lost his job and had been living and sleeping on the streets for the past 10 years. He is the person God used, to show us the need to help others, by carrying canes and crutches in our car. When we stopped and gave him the cane, he threw down his stick and said, I won’t be needing that anymore!
Darrel spends most mornings on the street corner, begging for money. We see him often and we stop and talk and pray with him. On Sundays we pick him up and he goes with us to church. He has been able to save enough money to rent a small room and he now has a safe place to sleep and bed instead of concrete to sleep on.
I took this picture because as I was watching these two men sitting here talking I could see the transformation in Darrel’s face.
This was last Sunday.
Darrel confesses that Jesus is the only way to God, there is no other way. He relies on Jesus to get him through each day. You never know what God has planned or what he will do. But, if we are just willing to step out of ourselves to help someone else in some small way,
God will show you how His love can make the difference.
2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this precious treasure ( the good news of salvation) in earthen vessels (of unworthy human frailty), so that the exceeding greatness of power is shown to be of God, and not from ourselves.
To God be the Glory