“Lord, if I see that boy again, I promise you, I will take him in and help him!”
Hilde Franz, my mother, had just talked to Isaac, a little boy on the streets of Kabale in Uganda. He wore on a dirty men’s sized T-shirt. He had come to beg for some food. After feeding him, Hilde drove back home, but couldn’t get Isaac out of her mind. She felt bad that she had not done more to help him.
She looked for and asked about him, but he didn’t show up again for months. This time my mother took the filthy little boy with her. When they got home, one of the men took him right to the bath tub for a thorough cleaning.
Isaac undressed and the man reached for the dirty clothes to throw them away. Little Isaac made a real fuss. He would not let his tattered clothes out of his sight.
After a thorough scrubbing, Hilde brought in a set of beautiful clothes for the little boy. After he put them on, Isaac no longer cared about the old dirty ones.
Ephesians 4:21-24 in the NLT says, “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”
We tend to hold on to the old ways, thinking that God just wants to take things away from us. When the fullness of Christ comes in your life, the old ways seem so insignificant and worthless.
