My husband Neil volunteers his time to friends to do small jobs around their houses. He enjoys tinkering and creating with his hands and he can usually sort out mechanical problems. In fact, we met in the Air Force where he worked on the airplanes. He especially enjoys those tasks that let him create in his woodshop.
Recently, Neil built an appliance garage for a friend.
That project entailed cutting into a built-in oven enclosure to avoid losing counter space. Our friend Kim from church (a true servant of God’s) helps him when two pairs of hands are essential to getting the job done and vice versa. The job of the removal of the oven was a two-man job so Kim was called for the pullout and again when the job was completed so the oven could be replaced.
Kim is married with four children – two still at home and has a lovely wife, Gretchen. Gretchen, of course, is also a great servant of God partially because she sacrifices her personal time with her husband so that he can help others. The burden of the house and children rests more on her shoulders than it might normally if Kim wasn’t out and about doing so much good.
I find it is not unusual to make personal sacrifices in doing good for God. We might lose time spent with family, or sometimes we have money out of our pocket, say to buy lunch out that we might have had at home, or maybe even the occasional smashed thumb. But there is such a reward to being obedient to God’s calling that those that are called to be servants make such sacrifices willingly.
Neil and Kim have worked on many projects together helping others, generally the elderly, widows, and single people in our church that have no one around the house to help with the endless projects that must be done.
Kim’s father was a plumber and Kim worked alongside him for a few years before becoming a youth pastor/music minister/family director and jack of all trades. Almost every building repair project in our church in the past 18 years has Kim’s fingerprints on it. He has jackhammered into cement floors to find drain backups and leaks and fixed them.
He built our stage for Christmas productions. He keeps the boilers running and is one of those servants of the Lord that is always available to everyone at any time. I know because we called him late one cold night when our furnace quit, and he came over and was able to fix it to get us through the night.
Many people in our church family have called on him day and/or night and he readily comes to their aid.
Kim doesn’t just work for the church; he works for God. God has created us to do good for His Glory and Kim fulfills that job. I pray that Neil and I both do this as well. We give God glory in all the things we do.
This Christmas season we are celebrating the ultimate faithful servant Jesus Christ. Everything Jesus did on Earth He did for the Father’s glory and at the Father’s direction.
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:5-8). This is the very essence of God the Son-Servant.
Jesus honored His Father in every thought, word, and deed. He followed the will of the Father even unto death on the cross. Jesus who was wholly God and wholly man chose to be obedient in order to save all of us from the death that was our due punishment for disobedience – our sin. We are told, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23).
The Bible also tells us that anyone who believes in Jesus as Lord will live eternally with God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
What a wonderful example we can follow of the faithful servant Jesus. As we celebrate His birth this Christmas may we understand fully what Christ has given us – we can be cleansed, and our disobedience forgiven. We can have life everlasting with God. This week let’s celebrate Jesus!
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City.
