Stuck

My brother the army chaplain, currently in Iraq, used this story from our childhood in a recent sermon. I don't remember this exact incident, but I do remember the Wonder bread sacks to get my boots on, and my Mom's "garbage coat," which is what I called it because she always wore it to take out the garbage!

Galatians 1:3-5 Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

We lived in Chicago which meant that there was snow on the ground from October to April and that we wore rubber boots over our shoes everywhere we went. To keep our shoes from getting stuck in our boots, we would put a bread sack over our shoes so our shoes would slide in and out with ease.

This habit will be etched in my memory forever because of one late winter day when my brother and I decided to take a shortcut home from school. Rather, he decided to take a shortcut and being the younger brother, I followed.

At first, the noise made by the mud sucking at our boots – a combination of a slurp and a thwuck - was funny, but soon I was stuck.

Help me, big brother, I cried. Patiently, gently he yanked me, not out of the mud, but out of my boots. “Curse you, bread sacks!” Now I was really stuck and really muddy and really crying. His only course of action was to leave me (where could I go?) and get our mother. I don’t know how long I waited stuck like that, but I knew my mother would come. In her car coat and rubber boots, she walked right through the mud and put her arms around me and pulled me out. She carried me back to the side walk, and after retrieving my boots, she took me home.

I. And that is why God sent His Son that first Christmas. His children were stuck, and He had to redeem us.
II. He came to reconcile us.
III. He came because He remembers the covenant .