Proverbs 25:25
Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.
This is the week of the annual fair back in my home town. Hearing favorable reports about it on social media brings back a lot of good memories.
The Geauga County Fair has always been good for the whole town. Everyone anxiously waits for the fair every year. It’s a great place to catch up on the news. Many love just walking around bumping into people they know. Many come from far away to be in Burton, Ohio during fair week.
One of my favorite memories is all the town people sitting on their front lawns just saying hi to people that they have known for 50-70 years walking past. Everyone walks every where because cars are useless that week. Absolutely no one is used to the bumper to bumper traffic that fair week brings. When the fair visitors begin to arrive from distant places, there is an air of expectation.
I was one of the town’s paperboys, so I never had a day off during the fair. I didn’t mind. Fair time was good because everyone was happy and active. I always found it sad when the fair ended. After the fair, it got cold, The Burton Township people went inside of buildings and stayed until spring. I was theonly source of news for many of them, except for the tv and radio.
Being a paperboy to me was like having fair time all year round. I saw a lot of people every day. Back then, people used to stand by the door and wait for me to bring the newspaper. They were so happy to get their newspaper and everyone was happy to see me. Well, except for their dogs, another story.
What I noticed while being a paperboy was that people like receiving news, whether good or bad. People want to know what‘s going on. Nazi war criminals were denied news about current events. My army buddies that guarded some of them in Berlin said that this was torture for these once powerful men. The beauty of the paperboy is that they just deliver the newsand leave. There is no obligation on the paperboy’s behalf to make sure that the customers read it, agree with it, or even believe it. The news is delivered.
People want news. It’s fun to give it to them. I am still a paperboy in a sense. People look at me expecting the Good News. They want to see the Good News in my life through my words and by my actions. The Good News that Jesus paid for all our sins, past, present, and future. Believe it or not, some people have never really heard it before. When I deliver it, my job is done. I love to see them receive it with gladness, but that rarely is the case.
The Good News is that we can not earn our salvation by refraining from sin. We don’t earn our salvation by going to church, reading the bible nor by praying. That is the best Good News. Realizing that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more, nor less.
We can have eternal life and go to heaven, one way, and one way only. By accepting Jesus’ finished work on the cross and by receiving Him in our hearts as Lord and Savior.
That’s the Good News we bring to the children in Nicaragua. Some have so much guilt and shame in their young lives. They don’t have a good memory in their little lives, like I have of the fair. It is such a treat to love them and accept them as they are, and to know that the Lord loves them! It’s FUN to share that with them.
BEST OF ALL, not only will that have a good afterlife, but we are building GOOD MEMORIES FOR THEM IN THIS LIFE AS WELL!
Life should be good for a child, now and in the the future.
1 John 5:12
Whoever has the Son has life
Dean