"I Did Good"--Lessons from the Pure in Heart

My teenagers volunteered at the Special Olympics games last week. Their job was to distribute the medals to the coaches, who would then present them to the participants. All day, they watched athletes take the stage and receive their medals with wide grins, fists in the air, the occasional jump of joy. They told me about one girl, however, who when presented with her silver medal, began to cry. She even turned her body around in a sign of defeat. What happened next has stayed in my heart for days.

A teenage boy, who was upset by her tears, scooted down the stage toward her. He tapped her on the shoulder, placed his gold medal around her neck and said, “Here you go. I did good.” And He smiled big.

The purity and kindness of that almost stunned me. The thought that kept running through my mind was...who does that? Have I ever known anyone to do something like that? The answer is: only those who are pure in heart. I know a heart like that--I live with a child with special needs. Her pure spirit is of the highest value to me, and is something so special to God, so unique to humanity.

Because it seemed like God kept hitting replay on this incident, I took time to get quiet and ask Him what He wanted to show me. Here’s what He said.

You want to know who does that?
He reminded me of all of the people who have shown us extraordinary kindnesses over the years.
We needed a wheelchair van, and friends, family and even strangers gathered the money to make it happen. We spent weeks in the hospital with our daughter, and friends and family took care of our kids and meals and visited us to keep us from getting lonely. The many words of encouragement and hugs and gifts over the years that just said, “I see you. And I care.” Our daughter’s teacher, who wrote us a check to help with medical expenses. Our hairstylist who comes to our house to do 5 girls’ hair and refuses payment. All of those people are like this remarkable boy.

No matter what it is, there is some place in your life where you "did good.” Maybe you have more money than you need. Give it to someone who needs it. Maybe you have been given lots of love in your life. Share it with those who haven’t. Maybe you have encouragement to offer. Bless others with your kind words. You are “doing good”…somewhere. It’s not meant for you to hold onto. It is meant to be shared with someone who needs it. I’m certain we are God’s plan A for taking care of one another.

Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” I’ve often wondered if my special friends have a jump on the rest of us when it comes to this blessing. Maintining a pure heart seems to come naturally to my special needs friends, while the rest of us need to continually keep our inner lives with God in check. The bible promises that those pure-hearted ones will have no problem seeing God at work around them. But I often feel like the blessed one, because I get to see God’s love at work because of them.