HELPING
UNCLE JOE

Topics: Attitudes; Children; Compassion; Example; Faith; Forgiveness; Grace; Love for Enemies; Patience

References: Matthew 18:3, 21–35; Mark 11:25; Luke 10:21; Romans 12:19–21; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13

When I went to pick up Shanna for Sunday school one week, she was crying and had blood on her dress. “It’s my uncle Joe!” she said. I knew that her family was “going through changes” because of Uncle Joe and his drug addiction.

Shanna had particular reason to feel bitter toward her uncle. For years she had dreamed of owning a bicycle, and that Christmas a donation from a church made her dream come true. Shanna rode her shiny, new blue bike everywhere, bragged on it, polished it, and treasured it. Within a month, her uncle had sold the bike to buy drugs—an ample reason to embitter a nine-year-old.

Now, on this morning, there was one more reason. Uncle Joe had come home wearing a T-shirt that read, “Say No to Drugs.” Shanna commented, “Why don’t you read your own shirt?” He hit her, causing a nosebleed. The white collar and yellow lace of her Sunday dress were a mess. Nothing else was clean, and everyone else was still asleep. We went to church to wash out the bloodstain.

When it came time in the service for individual prayer petitions, Shanna’s voice sounded bright and clear as a trumpet: “I pray for my uncle Joe. He needs your help, Lord. Please, Jesus, help my uncle.”

What a privilege to drink from the same chalice as Shanna.

—Heidi Neumark, Breathing Space (Beacon, 2003)