Kindness! It can make such a difference in our lives!
Twice in our lives, Lin and I were touched by such kindness that words can't adequately express the gratitude we felt.
In 1988, Lin faced a very serious health crisis. He almost died of total renal failure, and he was in dire need of a kidney transplant. Fortunately, over time, Lin actually received two kidney transplants through the donor program. The first was in 1990. The second was in 1999 after he lost the first kidney to chronic rejection.
Each time Lin received a kidney, there was a family out there who was grieving over the death of a loved one, but in the midst of their grief, they made the decision to donate their loved one's organs to people they didn't even know. Our gratitude for such kindness was beyond words! When someone gives you the gift of life, what can you do but be forever grateful?
When we're touched by kindness, we're never quite the same again, and when we, in turn, give kindness, we're following God's example of how He treats us.
When you show kindness, someone may feel like you are an angel to them, and you may feel like you are touching wings with the Divine! Now I am not saying that you will sprout wings, but when you show kindness, you change lives for the better, and some may even feel you are an angel in disguise!
We cannot be truly kind to others until we experience God's kindness to us. Here we were--a whole world of humans who were going to die. We weren't just bad, we were despicable. We were unloving and unlovable, but God loved us! He loved us enough to die for us.
Jesus gave the greatest demonstration of kindness and love and mercy that the world has ever known. He gave us grace--undeserved kindness!
Stand with me at the foot of the cross. Jesus' back is covered with terrible lacerations that He received the night before. His hands and His feet are pierced through with nails. His brow is bleeding because of the crown of thorns. A soldier will pierce His side with a spear.
WHY IS HE THERE?
His head is crowned with thorns because of our wrong thoughts--thoughts of hate and lust and envy and anger and care. His ears are filled with mocking because of the bad things our ears have listened to. His tongue is dried up because of the unkind things we've said with our tongues. His back is bloody and raw because we have carried many an idol instead of love to our God. Because of the pollution of our hands, His hands are spiked. Because of the wrong paths our feet have taken, His feet are nailed.
See Him stripped of His robe--the One who clothes all believers with His perfect robe of righteousness and one day will clothe us with immortality. He who is the healer is wounded. He who is innocent is numbered with the transgressors. All because of His love and His kindness for you and for me.
Yet far worse than the physical pain was the mental anguish that Jesus experienced because of His separation from His Father as He bore the sins of the whole world--past, present, and future. When Jesus offers us the gift of eternal life at so great a cost to Himself, what can we do but be forever grateful and respond to His love and kindness with all the love in our hearts?
One thing is for certain. When we understand and respond to God's love and kindness toward us, then we are truly never the same again. It affects who we are and how we live.
When Paul listed the attributes that make up the fruit of the Spirit, KINDNESS was in the middle of the list. This is a kindness that knows no boundaries. It means being kind to all those who need it--and that includes everybody! It means being kind to the unlovely and being kind to our enemies--those who have hated us or hurt us or offended us.
I have a little flip calendar that has a quote that really hits home with me. It says: "We all mold one another's dreams. We all hold each other's fragile hopes in our hand. We all touch other's hearts."
We may have no idea of the pain, the sadness, the challenges that people all around us are facing--people that we see every day, people in the grocery store or doctor's office, people we work with or go to church with. Our words and actions have the capability of either shattering them or encouraging them and building them up.
Fortunately, being kind is not something we have to work at or work up, because it's fruit! Fruit doesn't grow by trying to grow. It grows by being connected to the Vine, Jesus Christ. When we are connected to Christ through the Holy Spirit, kindness will grow and flourish in our lives.
When you show kindness, someone my feel like you are an angel to them, and you may feel like you are touching wings with the Divine!
When we experience God's kindness to us and then begin spontaneously giving kindness to others, I can assure you of the rippling effect of that kindness. Just as the wake behind a boat creates waves that will cause ripples on the water all the way to the shoreline, so kindness will create ripples.
We can't even begin to imagine what impact our simple acts of kindness may have on someone else, and how far--reaching that impact may be.
Do a deed of simple kindness;
Though its end you may not see,
It may reach like widening ripples,
down a long eternity.
Joseph Norris
Through God's Spirit working in us, we can each have the happy, exhilarating experience of becoming an "angel" to our fellow travelers on this earth and of "touching wings with the Divine!"
It is my prayer that deep within our hearts, each one of us will understand and accept the unconditional love and overflowing kindness of our Lord and Savior, that we will let God's love and kindness flow from us to all those around us, and that we will each become a part of the rippling effect of kindness that spreads joy and warmth and harmony and love in ever-widening circles until Jesus comes.
Sandy Powell
