Daniel's Lesson

February 14th is a day we have set aside on our calendar each year to tell the people who are important in our lives how much we care about them. We often spend the other 364 days of the year neglecting to do this and it takes a special holiday, like Valentine's Day, to remind us to tell someone that we love them.

The Bible talks about love many different times. Doing a simple Google search, I found that the word love or a form of the word love appears in the Bible over 600 times in the New International Version! If you ask any kid they would tell you that 600 is a pretty big number, so the concept of love is pretty significant to God.

God made each one of us out of love. God sent his son, Jesus, to Earth because God loved us so much. During Jesus' ministry on Earth he taught us about love numerous times. In fact, when Jesus was being challenged to identify the greatest commandment that God had given us, he responded by saying, "The greatest commandment is to love others just as I have loved you." Christ calls us to share God's love not just on Valentine's Day, but everyday!

This weekend I saw the perfect example of the kind of love that Jesus is talking about. On Saturday mornings 85 children come to our gym to play in our children's basketball league. During the game each child is assigned to guard another child from the opposite team. Most of the time the kids guard each other throughout the game without saying a word to their opponent. They are both from rival teams. and to talk to each other would be fraternizing with the enemy.

However, this past Saturday I saw something different happen. It was the very beginning of the game. Excitement filled the air as both teams began playing with hopes of scoring many baskets. Just as the game was gaining momentum, one of the children hurt their finger and had to go sit down. Daniel, who was on the same team as the hurt girl, quickly rushed over to her to make sure she was okay. Then to Daniel's surprise he was put into the game to give the girl time to let her finger feel better.

Daniel is a kindhearted boy who, like any boy, loves competition. I expected for Daniel to take his spot in the game, guarding his opponent, and saying nothing to the opponent just like everyone else did. Instead Daniel ran into the game, went up to his opponent, and said "Hi! I'm Daniel. How are you?"

That simple gesture that Daniel made by greeting his opponent, a stranger, is one way Christ wants us to love others. Daniel's small greeting showed me that sharing Christ's love with someone doesn't have to be some grand gesture. It doesn't have to involve candy, flowers, or the moving of any mountains. Showing love to someone the way Christ has loved us can simply mean showing others, even a stranger, that you care for them.

Thank you Daniel for reminding me how easy and important it is to love others just the way Christ has loved us.