Today I would like to tell you about two high school students,
Parker and Addie who were
planning to go to the prom together.
And as you may know, the prom can be kind of a big deal. And,
the young ladies often spend a lot of time
looking for just the perfect prom dress.
And Addie
found the perfect prom dress, but there was a problem.
It was way too expensive.
It was way more money than she could ever hope to
be able to afford for a prom dress like that.
She showed it to Parker and said, "You know what?
That's the one I would like to have.
But there's no way, there's no way I can get it.
It's way too expensive."
And so she kept looking.
She did not buy that prom dress, and yet,
that prom dress
is exactly the one she ended up wearing to prom.
And do you know why?
Because Parker, her boyfriend, decided to do something very nice.
He did not buy the prom dress for her.
Instead,
he made it.
He made it.
After Parker,
after he saw the dress that she wanted
and saw the disappointment in her eyes about not being able to afford it,
he decided to teach himself how to sew.
And with the many months that they had before prom,
he taught himself how to sew.
He got the material and with a little help from her grandmother,
he was able to sew the prom dress
that she had seen that day.
And so she was able to wear exactly the dress that she wanted.
It was a glorious, a glorious gift.
It was a glorious night.
She looked glorious.
He looked glorious.
And they didn't just look glorious
because of what they were wearing.
You know, what he did was glorious.
It was a glorious act of love.
And it's the type of act of love that Jesus
commands us to put into practice.
As he's talking to his disciples on one night,
he said this.
He said,
And notice that Jesus,
notice the importance of love that Jesus puts on that.
That love isn't just a nice suggestion
that he gives his disciples.
It is the identifying act
of every person who calls himself a Christian.
By this, by this one thing, everyone will know that
you are my disciples, he says.
If you love one another.
But there's a qualification.
It has to be love like his.
And what does that look like?
Well in many ways, it looks like what Parker did for Addie.
He sacrificed a lot.
He gave.
He was thoughtful.
He was kind.
And those are the types of things that we see Jesus do so often in his ministry.
So often he took time to heal the sick.
And he took time to,
he spent time with the outcast and the overlooked.
And people that nobody else wanted anything to do with.
He fed people who were hungry.
He provided beverages to those who were thirsty.
He, with his love, he helped.
He helped people.
And, do you know what else it looks like?
That kind of love looks like a mom
who gets up in the middle of the night
when a child has been up already five times
and she's exhausted.
But the child just wants to be held by somebody who loves them.
So she gets up.
It looks like somebody being patient with a spouse
who hasn't been so kind to them.
It looks like somebody taking the time,
dropping whatever it is that they were doing,
whatever other important thing they were going to do
just so they could put their arm around somebody
who needs some time and attention.
It looks like somebody who is in the bathroom
when the toilet paper roll runs out and they
take the time to replace it and put the new one on.
That is an act of love.
And today I want to encourage you
to look for opportunities to put that type of love into practice.
To be thoughtful.
To be kind.
One thing that Jesus said to his disciples,
another thing he said was that,
"You will always have the poor among you.
There will always be needy.
There will always be those who need a little bit more time,
a little bit more attention,
a little bit more love."
Because the love of Jesus helps,
I'd like to encourage you to find an opportunity to do that today.
So can you find opportunities
to show the love of Jesus that helps?
Consider it.
We'll see you tomorrow.