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ALL GOD WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS #5
GIVING THE BEST YOU’VE GOT
In his book, Among the Heroes: The Story of Flight
93, Jere Longman shares heart-touching details about some of the brave
men and women who were aboard that ill-fated United Airlines flight on
September 11, 2001. Lauren Grandcolas, who was sitting in row 11, had
been a successful marketing expert; she had done advertising and promotions,
recently for high-profile clients like Good Housekeeping. She was a volunteer
for adopt-a-kid programs; she worked with AIDS walks and other community
projects. Everything she did, she committed to; she did it with excellence.
And even now, as she looked into the face of death, she did it without
hysterics. She couldn’t get her husband, Jack, on the phone, and finally
had to leave a message: “I just wanted to tell you I love you,” she told
him. “We’re having a little problem on the plane. I love you more than
anything, just know that. I’m comfortable and I’m okay for now. I’ll,
I . . . just a little problem. I love you. Please tell my family I love
them too. ‘Bye, honey.” And that was it. A few minutes later — and we’ll
never know all the details — many heroes among the 33 passengers played
a part in bringing that 757 jet plane down to the earth far away from
civilization and the intended targets.
We’re a bit ahead of schedule as we work on Voice of Prophecy programs;
and you’ll understand that our team ended up working on this particular
segment exactly one year later: September 11, 2002 . . . so these tender
thoughts and memories are very close to our hearts. But how moving it
was, during the anniversary programming, to think about people who gave
the ultimate sacrifice, who put in 18-hour rescue days, not eight, who
worked with diligence and excellence and stayed on duty beyond the CALL
of duty. The L.A. Times had a story, one year later, about a young man
named Nelson Gracia-Cruz, from Puerto Rico, a mortuary affairs specialist
in the U.S. Army Reserve. He was called on to dig through the rubble there
at Ground Zero, looking for body parts, anything. It was back-breaking
AND heart-breaking work, but this dedicated American did his job with
unheralded excellence. And think of all the people who attended those
memorial services one year later, who poured their hearts into a poem,
a musical piece, a poster, a dramatized vignette there at Ground Zero,
or at the Pentagon, or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Every note, every
color, every word had to be just perfect — as a gift to the fallen heroes
and also to the Redeemer and Resurrector of those we had lost.
Here at Christmas time we’re thinking about the kinds of gifts that God
may want from us, and we get a September 11 kind of answer in a simple
holiday anthem. Maybe you remember about a little boy who doesn’t have
a very big allowance and who doesn’t have his parents’ charge card to
JC Penney’s. “I have no gift to bring,” he says sadly. “That’s fit to
give the King, pa-rumpa-pum-pum.” And of course, that little bit of rhythm
gives him the idea. “Shall I play for You?” he asks. Mary nods yes, and
the ox and lamb keep time as this poverty-stricken kid, who doesn’t have
gold or frankincense or myrrh, plays his drum for Jesus. And notice this
important line: “I played MY BEST for Him, pa-rumpa-pum-pum.”
And right there, friend, is a marvelous opportunity as we wrap up another
Christmas season. What can we give the Lord Jesus? We can give Him the
gift of excellence, of striving, of a finely honed skill. A prayer in
church, well thought out and rehearsed. A song on a flute or an organ
or, yes, even a drum. For me and those in my profession, a new, carefully
prepared and thought-out sermon message that has grace and structure and
spiritual finesse: not a rerun, not cut-and-paste, not an Internet special,
not something just tossed together the night before.
And let’s move away from the church sanctuary and Sabbath or Sunday morning.
Because Tom Burnett and Todd Beamer and flight attendant Deborah Welsh
were a long ways away from a cathedral or synagogue when they lived those
last moments of heroic excellence. And for you and me today, even something
as mundane as the way we go to work and sit in that cubicle from 7:30
a.m. until five or six at night. Or how we conduct ourselves in our marriage
or our parenting. Can we give our work and our daily schedule to the Lord,
and let it be known that the quality of our work and life reflects our
love for Him?
The Bible tells us that the Lord basks in this kind of Hallmark gift,
where you care enough to send the very best. “Whatever your hand finds
to do,” we’re told, “do it with all your might.” That’s Ecclesiastes 9:10.
All through the Old Testament we find that God wanted Israel to be a shining
light to the neighboring nations. “What is it with these people?” was
the query God hoped would echo from all sides. “They’re healthy; they’re
happy; their crops grow strong and their children too. Everything they
do prospers because they embrace excellence and serve a God who appreciates
and blesses excellence.”
And all through the New Testament parables of Jesus, we find that excellence
of service, doing your best, playing your drum well, is always considered
a gift to the Master. In fact, Matthew 25 explicitly describes our cups
of cold water and our prison visits as being Christmas presents for Jesus
Himself. But Jesus has praise for the Good Samaritan who goes beyond the
call of duty. The two men who double their gift of talents — from five
to ten and from two to four. The servant who keeps working while his master
is on a long journey, and when the boss comes home unexpectedly, the guy
is just there at the controls, doing what he’s supposed to be doing, manning
the pumps or playing the drum, pah-rumpa-pum-pum.
And just so we’ll remember, friend, when we go Christmas shopping for
God, that we’re responding to excellence. A good gift for an unbelievable
gift. Not just the Christ Child, but always.
“Sing unto the Lord,” the prophet Isaiah invites in chapter 12, “for He
hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.”
Friend, I want to just invite you again, here
at year’s end, to give God the gift of YOU. “All He wants is you; no one
else will do. Not just a part; He wants all of your heart. All He wants
is all of you. All He wants is you.”
And make it the best “you” you possibly can.
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