Ruthie's Love Note

 
Memory Verse: “We love Him, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
When Ruthie was a very little girl she could hardly wait to start school so she could learn to print like her older sister Beth. Finally the time came, and it was not long before she was able to print short sentences.
One day Ruthie was thinking about how good her mother was to her. Even though Ruthie was small she liked to do nice things for others, but somehow she could not think of a way to show her mother how much she loved her. Then she thought of a special surprise. Now that she could print, she would write her mother a note! Of course, like all of us when we were in first grade, there were some words that Ruthie had not learned to spell yet. So here is the note she gave her mother that day.
Mother was very pleased with Ruthie’s little love note, and she taped it up above the kitchen sink where she could see it and enjoy it every day. It stayed there a long time; in fact, it was still there long after Ruthie had learned how to spell “much.” But finally the little note actually did become “mushy” with soap and water splashes from the sink, and Ruthie’s mother rather sadly took it down. Even more sadly she threw it away.
Although it has been a long time since the day when Ruthie wrote that love note, do you think her mother has ever forgotten it? Of course not! It is clearly written down in her memory, and nothing has erased it. And did you know, children, that just as Ruthie’s mother stores things in her mind that she likes to remember (as each of us does), so God keeps a “remembrance book” where our loving thoughts and what we say about Him are being recorded every moment! He tells us so in the Bible: “Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.” Malachi 3:1616Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. (Malachi 3:16). The Lord does not just say to His angels, “Now you keep a record of everything Ruthie and Johnny and Gregg are thinking and saying about Me.” Oh, no! He is standing right there — it is being written “before Him.” The Lord wants to keep enjoying it like Ruthie’s mother did. But there is a difference. God’s records will never get “mushy” and have to be thrown away. For “whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever!” Ecclesiastes 3:1414I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14).
Have you thought about our wonderful Saviour today? Have you thanked Him for dying for your sins? If we think about Him often, it will not be long before we will be talking about Him, too. For God’s Word assures us that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Matthew 12:3434O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. (Matthew 12:34). We will be happy, and others will see our joy and want to know Him, too.
ML-05/11/1986