There is a kid at your school. This kid is a really nice kid, he doesn’t get in trouble and is actually really inspiring but seems like a “goody-goody” not really into bad stuff. He comes to you one day and say, “i want to be your best friend, if you let me i can show you how to live so you don’t have to suffer so much in this life and the one after” You respond awkwardly, “uh… ok…thanks…” thinking to yourself how weird of an interaction that was. You go about the rest of your school year avoiding this kid you deem to be a “weirdo”. The kid see’s you in the hallways, but you avoid him. He likes your instagram and facebook posts, but you eventually block him. The kid continues to excel in school and even miraculously heals one of your classmates by touching them. No one believes he really healed the kid in the wheelchair, many people believe that they were in on it together and that the kid was never really crippled and that they just did it to seem “cooler”. All the kids in school exclude him from their hang outs and block him from their social media pages, the kid becomes an outcast. You remember that one time the kid said to you,“I want to be your best friend, if you let me i can show you how to live so you don’t have to suffer so much in this life and the one after”. You feel dumb for even considering listening to him or giving him a chance now that you know how much of a weirdo the kid really is now that he claims to heal people. This kid continues to try and befriend you, he leaves you encouraging letters in your locker, he gets your back when others are talking bad about you, you even later find out how he kept someone from pulling a really embarrassing prank on you. All of these things just make him seem even more distasteful in your eyes, like he is really desperate for your attention.
One night you are hanging out with your friends convince you to get high with them. They make you feel lame for not wanting to smoke with them, They make you feel like a “prude” for not wanting to try it initially. You eventually give in and smoke and you start making fun of people in school as you and all your friends are sitting on your high horses. You mention the one time that kid said to you, “i want to be your best friend, if you let me i can show you how to live so you don’t have to suffer so much in this life and the one after” and you all laugh at what a weird comment that was for him to make and how much of a loser he is.
After getting high, you get in your car to drive home and as you’re driving you run a red light and smash into another car. You are now in critical condition. You are unconscious, you hear voices of nurses faintly saying that you need a heart transplant. They ask you to sign something so they can begin the operation. You wake up a few weeks later from your coma with a letter on your bed, you open it anxiously and begin to read.
“I am the Father of the kid you killed in that accident” you are now realizing that you just killed someone that night. You keep reading, “As my son was dying he begged me to give him permission to give you his heart. He told me that he wanted to be your best friend and that if you let him he would show you how to live so you don’t have to suffer in so much in this life and the one after. He told me how good of a person you are and how you have such a loving personality” It hits you that you killed the same kid you were making fun of from school and you cant believe that he saw so many amazing qualities in you. The letter continues, “Since you now have my sons heart beating in you, i now consider myself your Father and will keep my sons word and show you how to live so you don’t have to suffer so much in this life and the one after, if you let me.”
As you lie in the bed weeping you remember all the times you made fun of, blocked, mistreated, and now even killed the kid from school. You think about how you have been in this hospital bed for some time and none of your “friends” have even bothered to visit you, you realize that he was the only true friend you ever had that really cared about you to that point in your life. You decide to accept his Father’s guidance because you want to be like this kid and you whisper to yourself quietly, “I want to be your best friend too, forgive me for being such a jerk. Please teach me how to live so i don’t have to suffer so much.
The inspiration for the story came from a recent hang out with Cody and a bible study with Q. We were discussing ways to see Gods love and grace and stories that might help to connect with what God did for us by sending Jesus. I hope this helped you to connect with the cross.