Sunday Devotion- Sister Love

Janet Rubin

Two mornings ago, my 8-year-old Cassidy (a normally mellow and happy child) stumbled downstairs in her pajamas with tears streaming. Said her throat hurt “real bad.” She was shaking and feverish and utterly beside herself. About the most upset I’d ever seen her. One peek at her blazing red throat and bulging tonsils dotted with white splotches, and I knew the poor child had Strep. Before calling the doctor’s office, I gave her Tylenol and ushered her back up to bed. Propped her on pillows. Put in a DVD. And she cried and cried.

Meanwhile, her little sister Chloe had been looking on, utterly dismayed to see Cassidy in such a state. She disappeared from the room and returned moments later bearing an envelope, which she tentatively held out to Cass. Her interest piqued, Cassidy’s cries halted in a sniffle, and she opened the envelope. She pulled out a folded piece of light blue construction paper. Unbeknownst to me, Chloe had made a card. In the center was a big Christmas tree drawn with markers, and the words, “I love you Cassidy,” were written beside it, half the letters written backwards.

As Cassidy looked at the card, a smile dawned on her wet, blotchy face. She displayed the card by her bed where she could see it, and then held out her arms. Chloe scooted across the bed, and the sisters had a prolonged hug. Finally Chloe eased back, looked at me and said, “Can I please have my waffles up here so I can stay with Cassidy?”

Of course by now, moved both by compassion for my suffering child and overwhelmed by the blessing of girls who love each other, my mother-emotions had me practically sobbing. I rushed off to make those waffles and call the pediatrician, sending up prayers of intercession and thanksgiving all the while.

I’ve been telling the story of Chloe and the card she gave her sister to every poor shmuck who crosses my path, and today as I considered what to write my Novel Journey devotional about, the story came to mind again. I suppose what made the offering so lovely to me was the motivation. It was love and compassion that prompted Chloe to create and share what she’d created. Those are the emotions that caused a Father to give His Son to a sick and suffering world. The same emotions that caused that Son to stand on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and cry, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)

What was lovely about Chloe’s offering was the purity, the absence of self. So rarely are our creative endeavors pure, or even close to pure. I’m a writer, so I know well how the longing for praise or money or fame often overshadow such good motives as pleasing and glorifying God, or encouraging and blessing others. In Romans 7, Paul laments his never-ending struggle with sin—how the things he wants to do he doesn’t do, and the things he doesn’t want to do, he does—then concludes saying, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” I quote that scripture saying, “Oh wretched writer that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul has the answer; in the next verse he says, “But thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The only One who ever created and gave with perfect pure motives came to help all of us who are incapable of doing so, and in rare, shining moments, enables us to imitate him and operate out of love. For even Chloe, sweet as she was in the incident I related above, displays her very human nature on a daily basis as she interacts with her sister. One can often hear her saying, "I wanna go first!" or "I get the bigger brownie!" But I believe the Holy Spirit indwells her too, and I saw Him working through her when she gave that card. He'll do the same in us if we ask for His help.

Lord, how we long to have our creative offerings be pure offerings for You and for others, not tainted by pride and selfishness. Thank You, God, for your gift of love, which we celebrate this month—Jesus leaving glory for a stable so He could grow to be the sacrificial Lamb and save us. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, Lord. Help us give as You gave. Let our writing bring smiles to others as Chloe’s card brought a smile to her sister. Amen