The Gift Of The Good Son

My Mother once said to me that I was her last chance at having a good son. I can’t tell you how many times I fell short of that wish of hers. I was 12 years old and my two older brothers were in prison, one for stealing cars and the other for a purse snatching he did not do but was found with the contents of the purse near him in a car, he was doing time for another man because he was not a snitch. I was being accused of a crime my mother and I both knew I did not do, we also knew that I was willing to go to juvenile hall before I would tell the police who did do it. As we drove home from the station the only sound in the car was her quiet sobbing, it was the longest ride of my life and I sat there just staring out the window. No way was I even going to look at her, not because I was ashamed, because I wasn’t. I was mad; the police were going to take away my freedom because I chose not to be a snitch. But I could not look at her because if I did then I knew I would start to cry too and that was just not going to happen, then I would be ashamed. When we drove into the carport she put her hand on mine and looked me in the eye and said, "Cy please don’t turn out like your brothers, you're my last chance at a good son". Not long after that I did my best to make good on my promise to change. I joined the local Pop Warner football team and found a whole new bunch of friends. I did better in school and began to do what I could around the house to help her out. But never was I able to live up to that promise. Imagine the love of a mother for her son and the helplessness to save him, and imagine the love of the son and his helplessness to be true to a promise he made to a mother he loves. In 2004 Jesus found me broken, lost and alone. I was a heroin addict, homeless and have been living on the streets for many years. I was so dirty and unkept that people actually walked around me so that they would not have to look at me or get near me. But God did not ignore me or avoid me but He searched me out and embraced me when I was at my worst Today my two older brothers and I are all good sons to my mom. We love her and see her often. Our love for her is stronger than ever and I believe it is because even though we all have caused her so much hurt she always loved us. We all love God and we all have been changed by His love. Now imagine the love of a Father for a Son He does have the power to save but instead gives Him up as a sacrifice for those who like me have turned their back on their God and broken many promises to Him. And imagine the Son who can at any moment end an ordeal that has caused Him great humiliation, enormous shame and unimaginable pain but chooses instead to endure for the sake of even just one bad son. This is the true meaning of Christmas! That God would give His one and only Son to die for you and that the Son would give His life that you may live with the Father forever, regardless of who you are today or have been in all of your yesterdays. We teach our kids to believe in Santa and get upset when they stop believing thinking that it’s all over, our kids are all grown up and now Christmas has lost all of its magic. But I declare to you that it is not until we begin to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas that the magic begins! This day is a day of faith, a day of thanksgiving and a day of reflection upon a child in a manger that came to bring to life the hope of a hopeless mother for her sons, to answer the cry of a dying man as he lie in his own blood and filth and reaches towards Heaven and asks for redemption! This is the day that the heavens were opened wide and God's Love poured down upon a merciless generation and Mercy was spread throughout the world to every nation and for all time! My friends, God loves you! He has proven His love for you with the only way that can be declared as proof; He gave to you a Good Son! Merry Christmas