| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 4 |
Page 4 |
The beginning of new life in Simon was when he met with Jesus. A new human friendship ofttimes colours all one’s future. To know that somebody cares for us, that somebody is interested in us, means a great deal to any of us. A Christian man tells of finding a poor lame boy in the school he was teaching. The boy was lonely and a cripple. He told the teacher one day a little about himself. His father had been killed in the mill and the family was poor. “I want to be somebody,” said the boy, and he won the teacher’s heart by his longing. The young man spoke to him encouragingly, laying his hand upon the boy’s head and saying, “I want you to know that I love you and will be your friend.”
That was a divine moment for the little fellow. “Did you say you loved me?” he asked, later. “Yes,” replied the teacher. “O sir, if you love me, I will be a man yet, by God’s help.” It was the love of Jesus for Simon, shown that day in His interest in him and His encouragement that was the beginning of a new life in him. Then the giving of the new name meant a great deal. Jesus believed in him, and that thrilled him with a new hope.
One of the finest secrets of helpfulness is the power to encourage others. Discouragement quenches many noble possibilities, but encouragement is inspiring. You think that you cannot make much of your life, that you cannot do anything good or beautiful. Your friends seem to think so, too, and you settle down to a hopeless feeling of insignificance. Then some one comes who sees capacity in you, who catches sight of a gleam of gold in the sand, who discovers possibilities in your life which you never imagined were there, and tells you what he sees. You know what that means to you. Jesus saw a Peter in the rough Simon before Him. Then Simon began to see the Peter, too.
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