Christ has given each of us the love gift of eternal life, by the measure of his work on the cross—Ephesians 4:7 (King Jimmy Translation).
Gift of Love from the Heart
The lazy July Sunday afternoon seemed innocent enough. Football season was weeks away, so TV offered nothing worth watching. Your humble Aggie scribe’s customary Sunday afternoon nap abruptly ended when Daisy and Skipper, our two dachshunds, decided an all-out bark attack at the backyard squirrels would drive them away. Bored, your humble Aggie scribe tinkered in his garage to pass the time.
My mind wandered. Thoughts turned to Tom and Carolyn, our dearest friends. Later that night, they were flying home after a week’s stay with their son, Mark, in California, and his wife, Crystal. Is there a more heartfelt homecoming gift for weary travelers than a homemade something from the heart?
With so much idle time on my hands, my boredom devolved into temptation for mischief. Surveying the available gift-making materials in the garage, and whether by divine guidance or from a vast Aggie engineering background, a gift of love evolved. After an hour of fabrication and assembly, the love gift was carefully loaded into the truck for delivery to my friend’s Colleyville home, an affluent suburb in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Tom and Carolyn’s upscale home sits among many with meticulously landscaped yards and flowing fountains, along a scenic tree-lined street. I backed into the driveway and unloaded their homecoming gift. After strategically positioning their present for optimal visual effects, I stood back to admire their new outhouse. My OCD assured me the quality of workmanship exceeded their homeowners’ association standards. I opened the door to position the dummy upright on the pot and placed the roll of paper in his hand. The big smile on the dummy’s face said it all: welcome home, Tom and Carolyn. Regrettably, I didn’t have an old tire to lean against the structure to match their home’s Oklahoma-themed landscaping. It’s true: a person is changed when they share a gift of love to those in need.
My phone’s Aggie War Hymn ringtone woke me—11:10 pm. From the confusion, shouting, and colloquial expressions on the other end of the line, your humble Aggie scribe deciphered threats of lawsuits and revenge, followed by what can only be described as industrial-strength belly laughter.
Tom moved the outhouse to the garage. They are gracious hosts who entertain weekly. No one came to their home without a mandatory trip to the garage to view the potty and listen to the increasingly embellished story. Guests took iPhone pictures with the dummy.
Weeks later, their daughter-in-law, Crystal, came to town. Without Carolyn’s knowledge, Tom called me with a plan, to which I eagerly agreed. He conveniently left the garage door open. I parked a few houses down and slipped in unnoticed and replaced the dummy with myself. (Carolyn and Mrs. Aggie think there’s not much difference between the two.) I called Tom. “Operation Live Dummy is a go.”
A few minutes later, I heard Tom, Carolyn, and Crystal wandered into the garage.
“Oh, my gosh!” Crystal laughed loud enough to call migrating geese. “I saw the pictures you sent. That’s hysterical.”
“Open the door,” Tom said.
I held the door from the inside.
“It won’t open.” Crystal tugged harder. “It’s stuck.”
“Sure it will. Keep trying,” Tom said.
She yanked a few more times. When I felt her giving up, I let go. She yanked the door wide open.
It’s astounding how the simple, yet intense, one-word greeting of Hey! when said unexpectedly, will cause a forty- year-old woman to vertical-jump higher than Michael Jordon. Her shriek shattered every wine glass within a three-mile radius.
Carolyn, also caught unaware, unloaded her own metaphors regarding the health and wellbeing of Tom and my posteriors. Any normal human body functions that occurred during this incident were discreetly overlooked.
Tom said he last saw Crystal heading west, running through the rose bushes of the neighborhood’s landscaped yards, followed by a flock of migrating geese.
Several years prior, Tom and Carolyn received a different love gift, but this gift wasn’t from me. I received this gift too, as have billions of others through the centuries. Our heavenly Father loves us so much that he gave us the gift of his only Son, Jesus, who paid the price of the sins of the world. The Bible says in John 3:16, God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believed in him [the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross] would not perish but have everlasting life. To guarantee that we’d have eternal life with him through faith in Jesus, God raised him from the dead three days later.
I had a sin debt that one day I would have to settle the account. There was no way I could pay the price for the sin written on my life’s tab. Maybe if I performed a few good works, like give a little money to charity, or rescue kittens out of trees, or help old ladies across the street, these noble deeds would erase those sin debts. These acts of goodness, however, failed to cancel any of my debts. Only Jesus paid the price for the sins I’d recorded in my life’s story. Jesus picked up the tab and paid it himself. I humbly accepted God’s gift.
Talk about a love gift.
Lord Jesus, you gave your greatest love gift when you gave yourself as a sacrifice for my sins. I couldn’t earn your salvation, but I humbly accept your grace and forgiveness by trusting the work you did for me on the cross. Heavenly Father, you are a loving God.
Stay close to Jesus.
Jimmy
P.S. Colleyville’s Home Owner Association forced Tom to get rid of the outhouse, since the HOA rules allow only two-hole outhouses.
Copyright © 2017 Jimmy Eskew
THANKFUL 
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