Read: James 1:19-2:17
The heat in my childhood home was a wood stove whose warmth never reached my room. We didn’t have a water heater, or enough to eat, or more than a couple of outfits to wear. At the holidays, bags would show up at our doorstep containing clothes or groceries, sometimes even money. Those gifts were wonderful, but the gifts that transformed my life were the work of my Christian teachers in public school.
I never knew until college that parents were supposed to provide school supplies for their children. Each year on the first day of school, I would sit at my desk and there would be paper and pencils, pretty erasers and lovely new markers in every color. God had placed His children in that school ahead of me. They were people who “looked after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). They were not people who saw me without clothes and food and said, “Go, I wish you well” (James 2:16). They were people who quietly poured into my life the love and actions of Christ without any hope of my returning the favor.
We don’t know how we affect the lives of those around us. What you do for others during this season is important. But more important is how you live out your faith every day. James 2:18 says “Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do.” Those gifts of school supplies and gentle words gave me a love of school and learning that translated into an ability to share Jesus’ love through writing. My teachers were investing in God’s kingdom in ways they couldn’t have imagined. Let’s live out our faith each day and be amazed as Jesus transforms lives in ways that blow our minds.
