December 21, 2021
At a recent Christmas party, the guests were instructed by our hostess to play a game in which when you arrived you received a candy cane hung on a string that you were to wear around your neck. If you said the word “Christmas” then you had to surrender your candy cane to the person who heard you say it. Also, if you had collected several candy canes and you said “Christmas” you lost them all. The person at the end of the evening who had the most candy canes necklaces won a prize.
The game was a lot of fun as people forgot and said “Christmas” and other people tried to trick them into saying “Christmas” so that they would lose their candy canes. A mother and daughter had the most candy canes (4 apiece) and everyone kept trying to get them to say “Christmas” but they wouldn’t. They both are pretty competitive and determined (Stubborn) so it was a lot of fun.
I had 2 candy canes and I caught another guy saying “Christmas” so now I had 3. I got a lady to loan me her candy cane so that I could mess with the mother and daughter and make them think that there was now a 3-way tie with 4 candy canes apiece. I wanted to see how they would react. (I had no intention of winning I just wanted to mess with them)
To my total surprise and great joy when the mother saw that I had (what she thought) was 4 candy canes she leaned over to her daughter and whispered in her ear, “Merry Christmas” and gave her daughter her 4 candy canes so that she could win the prize. She whispered so that others wouldn’t hear and steal the candy canes.
WOW. What a beautiful demonstration of selfless, sacrificial love. This mother gave up her chance to win so that her daughter could win. She forfeited her own shot at the prize to ensure that her daughter got it.
What a beautiful picture of the selfless, sacrificial love that God has given us in giving us His Son Jesus. He gave His very best to ensure that we could have salvation. Jesus gave of Himself in obedient sacrificial love to die on the cross so that we could receive the gift of salvation.
When I complimented the mother later on about what she had done she said, “I would do anything to make her happy. I love her more than she will ever know”. Isn’t that true about the love that God has for us? He loves us more than we will ever know and He does everything that He can to make us not just happy but Holy.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs