One Saturday night, a Christian widow and mother, very busy with house-hold chores, asked her seven-year-old son to polish her shoes. He worked hard on them. Later in the evening, he brought the clean, newly polished shoes to her. She was so pleased she rewarded him with a new, shiny dime.

The next morning, as she prepared for church services, the mother started to put the shoes on. As she slipped her foot in one of them, she noticed a lump in it. Taking the shoe off, she found the dime wrapped in paper. Written on the paper, in her son’s childish scrawl were these simple words, “I done it for love.” - Bulletin Digest

This prompts a question for us all. What have we done for love recently?

• Have you helped your spouse with the children?
• Have you given clothes to a person in need?
• Have you visited those in the hospital?
• Have you done some work without expecting pay?

Remember what Jesus stated, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35).

I am Mark T. Tonkery with a minute of meditation from the Camden Ave. church of Christ where you are always welcome.

            Anissa Ayaca of Los Angeles needed a bone marrow transplant to save her from leukemia.  Her parents, age 44 and 42, had another baby to save her life.

            It is not the first time that a baby was a savior.

The Bible tells us in Gal. 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” 

Hearing these verses, our minds may go back to the words the angel spoke to Joseph about Mary, by saying “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mat 1:21).

The Bible points out, Christ’s birth was an essential part of God’s plan of Salvation.

Jesus grew and later offered Himself to die upon the cross and then He was raised from the dead on the third day, for the sins of all people. 

Jesus is the Savior of the world.

I am Mark T. Tonkery with a minute of meditation from the Camden Ave. church of Christ where you are always welcome.

             Every state in the U.S.A. has a state flower and a state tree as their state symbols.  Some states also have a state fish, a state stone, a state song, and even a state insect.  West Virginia is no different; it’s state insect is the honey bee, state flower is the rhododendron, and the state tree is the sugar maple among other state symbols. 

Symbols are powerful reminders of those things that represent us, tell us little about who we are and what we belong to. 

            Christianity has only one symbol.  The cross.  Yet it is even more than a symbol.  It is a way of life.  To be a follower of Christ means a lifestyle of sacrifice, and surrender.

Jesus teaches in Mt. 16:24, “…If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

If one is to follow Christ they must first count the cost. It is more than a symbol.

I am Mark T. Tonkery with a minute of meditation from the Camden Ave. church of Christ where you are always welcome.

Jesus said in this world we will have trouble.  People deal with their troubles in many different ways.  According to Ripley’s Believe it or not, there is a Shinto ceremony where people pour an alcoholic drink onto a carp and then release the fish into the water; believing the fish will swim away, carrying the troubles of the person who released it.

            If it were only that easy to deal with our troubles! 

            Christians have something much more dependable than a drunken carp.  Jesus said, in Mat. 11:28, “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Heb 13:5 tells us the Lord, "…will never leave us nor forsake us. Then in 1 Pt. 5:7 it encourages us to cast all our anxieties on him, because he cares for us.

            We each have troubles.  Jesus says to bring all your troubles Him.  He cares for us. He really does.

I am Mark T. Tonkery with a minute of meditation from the Camden Ave. church of Christ where you are always welcome.

When David Livingstone began his trek across Africa in 1852, he carried 73 books which together weighed 180 pounds. After he had gone 300 miles he had to throw away some of the books because it was not feasible to carry so much through the jungle. He continued throwing books away as he went further into the jungle. Eventually his library had shrunk to one book—the Bible—this he did not throw away.

The Bible is truly the most important book in the world the reason according to  2 Tim. 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

            Will you not stop for a moment today and spend some time reading the most important book in the world.  It will do you good!

I am Mark T. Tonkery with a minute of meditation from the Camden Ave. church of Christ where you are always welcome.