It Was All They Had

by reginald daniel

When we lived in east Tennessee, we met some rather sweet kids in our neighborhood. They were unchurched and also seemed a bit lonely. Edith and I did backyard vacation Bible schools for them. And we took them to the dairy queen or the grape vineyard, where they could eat their fill of a wonderful southern grape called muscadines. Our house was the hang out place when we were home.

Edith and I both won the hearts of those kids and they won ours. But they were especially drawn to Edith. One day they all dropped in with a gift for Edith. It was a small, soft, lovely piece of scarlet red cloth. I just imagine that one of the kids had found it in her mother's rag box of leftovers. Although one person had come up with the gift, it was truly from all of them. You should have seen their smiling gapped-tooth faces as they beamingly presented the little piece of throw away cloth to Edith. The kids had come up with the most precious treasure they had or could imagine. It was all they had to express their unabashed love.

To have seen the joy on those kids' faces, you would have thought they had just given Edith a new BMW, or a 3-carat diamond necklace, or a full-length sable mink coat. To have seen the tears and joy in mine and Edith's hearts, you would have realized that the kids' gift was worth more than a car, a necklace, and a coat. Combined. Strange how one of the best gifts ever given to us was a scrap piece of soft, scarlet cloth.

The scarlet cloth has traveled with us from state to state, from house to house over the years. It has been a reminder of abundant, spontaneous love from a batch of unforgettable little kids.

And the love cloth gift is a reminder of another precious gift. The scarlet cloth of forgiveness that Jesus wraps around anyone who asks. His robe of righteousness is not a leftover piece of cloth from the rag box. It is rather a deliberate, extravagant gift of love that covers our tattered, dirty rags.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isa. 1:18

He gave all He had.