We have a spunky leader on our Young Life team named
Wendy. She’s an empty-nester with a mama’s heart and a tattooed past. Last week
she gave the talk at Christmas Club.
As she told the good news of Jesus’ birth,
she shared specific ways of how Christ had transformed her own life. She
spoke of Jesus as a Wonderful Counselor, as the Mighty God, as an Everlasting
Father, as the Prince of Peace.
As her talk ended, she did something I’ve
never seen done before in a Young Life talk.
She said, “Just as God has given us the
gift of His Son, I wanted to give each of you a gift to help you remember just
who Jesus is…so I baked each of you a cookie. I baked them with love, and
I’ve put Isaiah 9:6 on them as reminder of Christ’s love for you.”
As kids poured out of club, Wendy passed out
almost two-hundred of those individually wrapped reminders of goodness.
The cynic in me wondered if it was worth the
long hours of baking and packaging. It’s just a cookie, right? Wendy, girl, I
could’ve saved you some time, I’ve got a Costco card.
But it was more than just sugar and
chocolate.
Afterwards kids’ hugged Wendy like she was
their second mama. Then many of them took those Isaiah 9 stickers off the
wrappers and stuck them on the backs of their phones. It was beautiful to watch the joy on the faces of kids who knew they were loved.
On Monday night…
They heard love.
They saw love.
They felt love.
And because of a leader named Wendy, who has been transformed by Love, kids even got to smell and taste
it.
