A businessman owned a warehouse which had sat empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and trash was everywhere inside the building.

The businessman showed a prospective buyer the property and took great pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage and clean out all the garbage.

“Forget about the repairs,” the buyer said. “When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different, something entirely new. I don’t want the building. I just want the site!”

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Compared with the renovation that God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping out a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When you become a Christian, the “old is passed away; the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

You can’t keep your “old building” when you come to Jesus. He doesn’t want the building–but he does want the site. The site is the real you–the you that was created in the image of God. And the old building–with its dark rooms and bad habits–is demolished. You become a new creation in Christ Jesus.

There was once a man who didn’t believe in God, and  he didn’t hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have  faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments.

One snowy Eve, his wife was taking their children  to service in the farm community in which they lived.

They were to talk about Jesus’ birth. She asked him  to come, but he refused.

“That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God  lower Himself to come to Earth as a man?

That’s ridiculous!”

So she and the children left, and he stayed home.

A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow  turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a  blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening.  Then he heard a loud thump.

Something had hit the window. He looked out, but  couldn’t see more than a few feet.

When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside  to see what could have been beating on his window.

In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild  geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got  caught in the snowstorm and couldn’t go on. They were lost and stranded on  his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around  the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed.

The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted  to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought.It’s warm and safe; surely they could  spend the night and wait out the storm.

So he walked  over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they  would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered  around aimlessly and didn’t seem to notice the barn or realize that it could  mean for them.

The man tried  to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved  further away.

He went into  the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail  leading to the barn. They still didn’t catch on.

Now he was  getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn,  but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the  barn.

Nothing he did  could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe.

“Why don’t  they follow me?!” he exclaimed.

“Can’t they  see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?”

He thought for  a moment and realized that they just wouldn’t follow a human “If only I were a  goose, then I could save them,” he said out loud.

Then he had an  idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as  he circled around behind the flock of wild geese.

He then  released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -and  one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety.

He stood  silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed  in his mind: “If only I were a goose, then I could save them!” Then he  thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. “Why would God want to be like us? That’s ridiculous!”

Suddenly it  all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese-blind, lost,  perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and  save us.

As the winds  and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful  thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come.

Years of doubt  and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in  the snow, and prayed his first prayer:

“Thank You,  God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm!”

Tags: jesus, prayer, story

A Cat was walking along one early evening, heading towards the village.

Cat was a friendly sort. In her lives she wore many hats. Sometimes she was a companion, listener and even a watch cat. Suddenly, out of the shadows leaped a massive dog. To cat it seemed as if a chunk of the sky had fallen into her path.

In the shadowy darkness, the animal towered over cat and bared its great, sharp, yellow teeth.

“Run away,” the dog snarled.

Startled nearly out of her wits, cat knew that if she were going to survive she must not panic. She imposed a steely calm on herself and looked up at the beast.

“I beg your pardon,” answered cat, far more calmly than she felt. “I have business here. Let me pass.”

The dog had not expected this reaction. He usually left his victims weak with fear by simply looking at them.

“Run,” he repeated. “I don’t like the way you drift about these parts cozying up to people and making them feel so secure. This is my place. Everyone here does as I tell them to.”

Now cat was nearly paralyzed with fear and running was absolutely out of the question. Cat knew that if she did run away she would never be able to see her friends in these parts again. She also realized that if she did not stand, she would always live in fear of dogs. Perhaps she would spend her life cringing at shadows as so many other cats did.

It wasn’t right. There was nothing wrong with cat helping people. The wrong was in the animal she was facing.

Cat breathed a silent prayer; “Oh help me find my way home safe.” A little spark kindled in cat’s heart. The light in her heart began to fill her and unfreeze her muscles and nerves. Suddenly, cat was no longer pretending – she really wasn’t afraid.

Cat realized at that moment, nothing mattered more to her than shining her light in this dark creature.

“I invite you to come with me and meet my friends,” cat purred. “I hate to think of you out here all alone.”

Slowly, cat managed to put one paw in front of another until she found herself gliding past the menacing creature.

“Stop,” snarled the dog. “Take one more step and I will destroy you. Don’t you dare cross me!”

It was too late. Cat had found her feet and was going at a fast pace toward the village where her friends waited for her.

She rushed into the home of the village’s guard dog and told her story.

“Did I do right?” cat asked.

“You did just fine,” he answered. “You aren’t finished. Now you must go out and tell your tale so that others who find themselves in fear might recall it and find their light.”

And so cat did.

– - – Contributed by Lisa Suhay