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Redeeming
Love
Derwin
Henderson was coaching a youth football team several
years ago in the Los Angeles, CA area.
One day he was practicing his team on
Compton’s Centennial High School football field when
some onlookers approached him. Since Henderson was an officer with the Los Angeles Police
department, they asked him to check on a group of boys
they had seen slip into the Centennial school
building. When
he did, he encountered a group of boys.
When
the boys saw Henderson, they all broke and ran –
all, that is, but one: 9-year-old Terrance Flournoy. Terrance claimed he wasn’t stealing or vandalizing.
In his words, he was sneaking around in the
closed school “because I don’t have nothing else
to do.”
Henderson
had heard that statement made many times before.
As an officer for the LAPD, he had arrested and
booked more than 500 kids.
He had personally seen many aimless kids
destined either to drift into trouble, or had already
done so. However,
this time he decided to try something else with
Terrance.
“Nothing
to do?” asked Officer Henderson.
“Come with me.”
He
took him to the practice field and invited Terrance to
join the team. Terrance
shook his head. His
mother wouldn’t let him, he said.
His family (which included three other
siblings) had just spent six months in a homeless
shelter and would not be able to pay the fees to play
football. After practice, Henderson drove Terrance to
see his mother and told her that he would pay the fees
if she would let him play.
She agreed, so Terrance began playing football.
Over
the last several years, Henderson has done much more
for Terrance than just giving him an opportunity to
play football; he has spent a lot of time mentoring
him on and off of the field, eventually becoming his
legal guardian.
In
an interview, Henderson confessed: “I know a lot
of people wonder why I’m doing this – what’s in
it for me. My
own mother gets a little upset – the money, the
time. She
says I do too much.
Sometimes I think about that.
But then I look at Terrance…”
He
didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t have to. All
he wanted was to do what he could to give Terrance a
chance. *
Even
so, God observed YOU and ME, caught up in our sinful
ways, and He wanted to give us a chance – an
opportunity for an abundant life and eternal life to
come.
Because
of His great love for us, He sent His Son into the
world to pay the price for our sins, to redeem us from
our vain manner of life (1 Peter 1:18-19).
He
is willing to accept us into His family if we will
only: believe
in Jesus and trust Him (Acts 16:30-31; Hebrews 11:6),
turn from our sinful ways in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts
2:38). And,
He has promised to continue to watch over us and
cleanse us from our sins, if we will continue to
strive to live obediently to Him (1 John 1:7).
Redeeming
love can change OUR lives, if we will only accept it.
Won’t
you?
David
A. Sargent, Minister
Church of Christ at Creekwood
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
* Information gleaned from article in Los
Angeles Times entitled,
“Rescuing a Boy From the Streets,” by Sandy Banks as posted at http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/practicebk01.htm
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