Night Sledding Rules!
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” Proverbs 17:17 (NKJV)
One of the most popular activities for both kids and adults on our church family retreat at Lake Louise is always the night sledding. This year was no different, and this year a certain scripture passage keeps going through my heard whenever I think about our night sledding:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:12-13 (NKJV)
You’re right, it’s quite a stretch from Jesus dying on the Cross to a kid zipping down a snowy hill on a tube.
Yes, it’s quite a stretch; but if you had been on our hill at Lake Louise Saturday night after the show, you wouldn’t think twice about it, because you’d know just exactly what Christian love looks like.
It looks like a kid rolling off the tube to keep from hitting another kid walking back up the hill.
It looks like a couple kids standing at the top of the hill, and announcing that no one is going down until we all know the rules.
It looks like a kid blocking a tubeful of sledders from running into the kids still tangled together on the hill.
It looks like kids explaining to other kids that we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ, and that we need to sacrifice for each other - we need to bail out of our ride if we’re going to hurt our brother or sister.
Next time you see kids out having fun, whatever it is they’re doing, let that remind you of the lesson of the night sledding rules - we’re all here to look out for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
That’s what night sledding will always mean to me now.
Prayer: Father, thank you for the glimpses we get of Your love as it shines through our family, our friends, our brothers and sisters. May that love make its home in us as the Holy Spirit helps us to exercise it. We pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen
Thought for the Day
You gave Yourself for us, Lord, now we give ourselves for others.
Charlie van Becelaere (from March 13, 2000)
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