Someone sent me a story a week or two ago, and I would like to share it with you. A nine year old boy sits at a desk in a third grade classroom. All of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants is wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened to him. It never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop, he puts his head down and prays this prayer, “Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I am dead meat.” He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you Lord! Thank you Lord!”

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.

As life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else, Susie! She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. “You have done enough, you klutz!” Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Susie whispers back, “I wet my pants once too.”

Scripture has much to say about that kind of practical love. I Cor. 13:4 tells us that love is kind. And Proverbs10:12 and James 5:20 both talk about how love covers a multitude of sins. With those injunctions, we should all be actively looking for someone that needs our love.

It might be a homeless person, or someone hospitalized. It might be a haggard young mother that needs a break. It might be those honorable servicemen and women who need to hear gratitude from us this holiday season. And just so I can keep my “H” alliteration going, it might be a hypocrite. You know, someone who says “I am fine…I am fine.” And really they are not!

We all need the help of others somewhere along the line. We have all had an “accident” or two. So regardless of where you find them this week, go looking for someone who needs your practical love and concern. And let Susie’s motivation for her kindness be yours too…
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? She whispers back, “I wet my pants once too!”