The Atlanta Inquirer

The Bible Speaks
Rev. J. A. Middleton

People often need another chance. A lady came to our office the other day who was desperately in need of another chance. She, by her own admission, had messed up her life. She had no job and several children. The children faced a rather bleak Christmas with no prospects of any of the nice little Christmas things children usually get.

The fact that some of the children were born out of wedlock should not prejudice us against the children. A child's basic needs are the same whether it is born in or out of wedlock. It may be that the child who is born out of wedlock has a greater need for love and understanding. We shall not debate the issue here. Our obligation was to find some way of spreading some Christmas joy for this as well as some other similar cases.

"God works in a mysterious way." As we were thinking of how we might help these situations a generous hearted member of our church called and said he had $100.00 he wanted to give to help some needy family with which we might be familiar. This was a decided relief for the immediate situation. With this hundred dollars we purchased some food and most needed clothing for the children. They enjoyed their rather surprising Christmas blessing.

The situation mentioned above could be multiplied hundreds of times in a metropolis like Atlanta. To make one or two families happy is but a bare scratch on the surface. This scratch on the surface, however, is good as far as it goes. But it quite obviously does not go far enough. It does not go far enough because (1) this mother (along with others like her) needs still a job. It does not go far enough because (2) there are fifty-one other weeks in the year. This, of course, is not to discredit generous donors who make such fine gestures at Christmas time. The only point here is to state that this is a year round problem. Many people may not become keenly conscious of it until Christmas time when everything is charged with a good will accent. But the hard fact is that the problem is a year round one. This mother who said her life has been messed up needs another opportunity.

The Bible speaks about a case where another chance was granted. Jesus said a man came three successive years looking for a certain tree in his vineyard to bear fruit. When he failed to find fruit he ordered the tree to be cut down. The hired helper pleaded the case for the tree and the owner granted the tree another chance. This story is found in the 13th chapter of St. Luke. In this story the Bible speaks to each of us saying: "give your fellowman another chance."