To be used around Valentine's Day
This is a story about three broken hearted people.
Here's the story of the first person:
Once upon a time there was a little boy. He had just moved to a new school and didn't know many of the children. He had trouble making friends because he was shy. Valentine's Day was coming. In the past, he had always gotten a card for everyone in the class on Valentine's Day. He would go through the cards that his mom and dad had helped him purchase at the store the night before the valentine party at school, and would pick out the best card to give to his best friend. He would then give the rest to all of the other students.
This year his teacher gave out a list of students for everyone to take home. His mama helped them get the cards and fill them out sign them for each person in his class.
The Valentines Day party was held at the end of the school day the following day. All the boys and girls were so excited. It seemed like they watched the clock all day long. As time went by, they got closer and closer to the time of the party. Finally the big moment arrived. All of the boys and girls were allowed to open up their packets of cards and walk around the room and place them on the desk of the student whom they were for. The little boy took his package of cards in started walking around the room. He placed a card on the desk of each student in the class. As he was walking around he would look over at his desk, but he noticed no cards were being placed on his desk. He thought, "it's too soon, the cards will be there when I finish."
But, as he walked around and delivered to last card out of his package and went back to his desk, there were still no cards for him. He had to realize that he had not received any valentine cards. All the other students were sitting at their desks reading their cards and laughing. He looked around and watched as his face fell, and his heart sank. His desk was bare. That Valentine's Day was probably the loneliest day of his life.
Person No. 2:
This person was born in a manger. Nobody had room for him at the inn. Before he turned two years old the ruler of the country had tried twice to kill him. But God protected him. As he grew older he began to tell everyone how they could go to heaven when they died. Although he loved everyone, most people laughed at him. He traveled all over the world, but few would listen.
Finally, in a town named Jerusalem, many of the people turned against him. They had him taken prisoner, and beaten, and condemned to die. They hung him on a cross between two thieves simply because he had spent all of his time loving people. They put nails to his hands. They ran a spear into his side.
As he hung on that cross, he died of a broken heart.
Who is that the third person? First let me tell you what happened to the first two people with broken hearts.
The little boy who didn't get any valentine's was your Sunday school teacher. (This is a true story about Mr. Kent) because the little boy was new to the class, the teacher had forgotten to place his name on the list for valentines. So his list contained everyone in the class, but everyone else's list left him off. About a year after this happened this little boy met Jesus and invited Jesus to be his savior.
Since that time he has had a friend who never forgets, never lets him down, pours out gifts every day, not just on Valentine's Day, comforts him when he is lonely, and has even made him smarter in school. But most important, Jesus has given him eternal life.
So the first two people in the story are now good friends and have mended each others hearts.
But, who is the third person?
The third person sits in this room today. That person likes to love others and would like some love in return. That person needs to be loved. Just like anybody else, that person has a heart that can be broken. That person probably likes Sunday school. That person may like coming to Sunday school because it gets them out the house where mom and dad are fighting all the time. That person may like coming to Sunday school because the kids and the teachers aren't mean at Sunday school.
That third person could be you. Your heart has been broken. You would like the love of a friend like Jesus. Most of all, you would like to know that when you die you are going to go to heaven, and not to hell. Jesus loves you very much, but he cannot become a very close friend unless you choose him to be your friend and savior.
Today would be a good day to make that choice.