And then my daughter said something to me, tonight, December
23, that really made me think. She was talking about whether or not she was on
the nice list. Her anxiety about it brought her to tears. She knew her cousins
were soon arriving and that she had one more day to be good. She said she would
be good all day and share her toys and make sure that Santa would know that she
was a nice person and that even though she wasn’t always good she surely wanted
to be good. Being on the nice list matters to my daughter! It matters enough that
she is deeply sorry for anything she might do to remove herself from it.
There was a time for all of us when being on the nice list
mattered. It was when there was someone watching over us whom we considered
more powerful than us – who held the key to our happiness. We did not want to
disappoint him. But when we grew up and our innocence was lost there were many
of us who no longer cared about our presence on the list.
A lack of genuine kindness is usually an adult problem. We
become cynical, impatient, and we get distracted with things that are not
important. One minute we are volunteering at a soup kitchen and the next minute
we are cutting people off for a better parking spot at a busy holiday shopping
mall. One minute we are delivering a fruit basket to a widow and the next
minute we are cross with the waitress who isn’t serving our every whim.
Kindness spent on others is often lost on our spouses and children. Patience we
extend to a person for whom we have compassion is often shortened for anyone we
don’t respect. And the scariest thing from all of it is our general justification
for our bad attitude. We just don’t cry at the idea that a nice list might be
something on which our name would not be found.
Jesus’ appearance to the earth was not just for salvation,
but for peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Titus tells us that the
kindness and goodness of God toward man presented itself in the person of Jesus
Christ. This is when grace came that taught us how to respond to love of God.
Nice should not be a stretch for a people visited by the Son of God who willingly
spilled His blood and forgave His murderers while still hanging between heaven
and earth.
My child taught me a great lesson this evening. She reminded
me I should always want to be on the nice list. She reminded me that the very
thought of not making it on the list should reduce me to tears.
“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the
Holy Spirit.” – Titus 3:4-5
Great lesson from the tender heart of a child!
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