Advent - the Gift DevotionalSample

“Jesus came at just the right time”

“It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24)

Helen Roseveare was a medical doctor who was serving in Africa, and after she’d been there some four years, late one night a mother went into labor prematurely. Helen battled all she could to save the life of the mother, but the mother died giving birth. The premature child was alive, but that little life was very tenuous. And so, the doctor asked the midwife to go and get a hot water bottle to keep the baby warm. But when the nurse came back, she said, “When I was filling it, the rubber bottle exploded, and it was our last one.”  

The next morning, the doctor made her rounds and had morning prayer with a group of children in the orphanage. She shared with them the fact that this baby had been born and was fighting to stay alive. And so, little 10-year-old Ruth prayed a prayer that went like this: “Dear God: Send us this afternoon a hot water bottle. Tomorrow will be too late because the baby will have died.”

About noon, someone came in and said to Helen, “Doctor, a truck has pulled in front of your house and brought a package.” And one of the things in that package was a hot water bottle!

Did you know that Christianity is all about a gift that came at just the right time? We desperately needed Jesus to save us from judgment. Without Him, the Bible says we were “dead in our transgressions.” But through Him, we are forgiven and saved for eternity.