Your Words

Amena Brown is one of my favorite spoken word poets.  Her words are inspirational and she is very candid and expressive.  Here she is doing "Your Words".

The Best Gift I Ever Got

My son Nicholas wrote the following essay for school on the topic "What was the best gift you ever received?"   He's such a cool kid!

The Best Gift I Ever Got

by Nicholas Wright

Have you ever had someone who was willing to die for you?  Well I do.  When I was seven years old, I went to a backyard bible school.  It was there that I received the best gift of all time.  I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart.

We are separated from God by sin, but God loved us very much, so he sent his son, Jesus, to Earth.  While on Earth, he did a lot of miracles and taught many people.  The greatest thing he did was die on the cross for our sins so we could go to Heaven to live with God forever.

I need Jesus more than I need air to breathe.  Jesus is my very best friend.  To show that I love him, I spend time with him by going to church, praying and reading the Bible.

I've had a wonderful relationship with Jesus since I was seven and accepted him to live in my heart.  He is very important to me and I love him.  I do not know what I would do without my savior, Jesus Christ.

Remembering Santos

I got my hair cut today at Great Clips.   They have all of us Wrights in their computer and after I gave my phone number to the lady at the counter, she typed it in and then asked me, "Bob, who is Santos?"

That question brought back a flood of memories.  I guess I had once taken Santos there to get his hair cut and he was still listed in their system.

Patrick, Santos and Nicholas

Several years ago, Lisa went on a mission trip to Honduras.  There, she saw a little boy whose feet were basically backwards.  Her heart went out to him and, with divine intervention from the Father, events fit together so that this little boy, Santos, was able to come to the United States and live with us for a few months.  During that time, he had surgery to correct his feet.

 Santos immediately became a part of the family and even though he spoke no English (at first), we learned to communicate with one another.  It felt like I had another son in the house.   Santos became close to not only us, but many of our friends and church family.

 

At Bethlehem Walk

Congratulations!  New feet!

One of the hardest things ever was, several weeks after his successful surgery, taking him to the airport where he flew back to his home in Honduras.   I can still remember the tears as we watched him walk down the airport away from us, a boy who briefly blessed our lives by becoming part of our family.  

About a year later, one of our close friends visited Santos' village in Honduras and saw him.   He told us that Santos was running around playing, just like all the other boys.   It was wonderful news hearing that his feet had healed completely.  God does great things!

We haven't heard anything about Santos for a few years now, but Rachel keeps a picture of him on a shelf in her room and, every so often, I will scan through the pictures of the Honduran kids on the Compassion International website to look for him.

So when asked, "Who is Santos?", I told a brief story about the boy from Honduras who had captured out hearts.

Glimpses of Dad

I saw my dad in the mirror the other day.  I had caught glimpses of him recently, in reflections in the window or in quick glances at pictures that had been recently uploaded to the computer.   But last week, there he was.  Staring at me.  And I was staring at him.  Or you could say I was staring at the guy I had turned into.

It is hard to believe that next week I will be turning 43 years old.   Where have the last 20 years gone!   I still think of myself sometimes as 22, right out of college and a newlywed.  But time creeps on and before you know it, decades have passed.  My baby boy is in college.  My baby girl is driving a car.

And I find myself looking more and more like Dad.   And my brother James.   Which is not all bad.  I just hate all the new wrinkles that are coming with it.