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Themes: "Kindness, Reward MBB Everyone in the neighborhood was scared of Mrs. McIvey. All the kids thought she was a mean old lady, since she yelled at them for throwing things in her yard, or walking on her grass. Mrs. McIvey was old, really old. At least eighty, she had white, wavy hair and a stick thin figure. Some of the neighborhood kids laughed and called her "Gumby". Ryan White was one of those children. He laughed and teased with the best of them, and was generally not very nice. Even though their parents told them that Mrs. McIvey was a very nice lady, Ryan and his friends did what they wanted, and continued laughing.
One day, however, Ryan walked along the sidewalk towards town, and passed Mrs. McIvey's house all alone. It was winter, and the streets were covered with snow from the previous night's storm. As he trudged past the house, Ryan noticed Mrs. McIvey out brushing snow off her front steps. She was slow and awkward, and seemed tired. Feeling sorry for her, Ryan decided suddenly to give her a hand. Ryan ran up the path and offered to shovel her driveway. Mrs. McIvey looked surprised, but said "thank you very much," and gave him the shovel and broom. After he was finished, she gave him a hot drink and Ryan left. He thought to himself that she really wasn't bad, and maybe his parents were right and they shouldn't tease her. From then on, Ryan tried to help Mrs. McIvey with odd jobs around her house, and they became friends.
Years later, after Ryan had grown up and moved away, he received a letter in the mail from a lawyer's office. Mrs. McIvey, the terror of the neighborhood, had left him her house and land! It seems that she had no relatives and had remembered the small boy who was kind to her when others were not. Like our Bible story of Caleb, Ryan was rewarded for something he did, years afterward. The difference between those two men, and us today, is the fact that we did not do anything to receive salvation from God. We are sinners, enemies of God, and yet we have can receive God's salvation simply by believing on Him. God loved us without a reason. The Lord Jesus paid the full price at Calvary, so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be saved. Salvation is a gift, not based on our works or our righteousness, but is through "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter 1:19) Trust the Lord for your eternal salvation and you can be saved today.
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Peter Orasuk
