Dave’s gift

We had just finished a clowning class and the awakened silliness was not yet spent. We decided to share some of our balloon animals with the school staff. One of them was sitting at his desk, diligently working. We sneaked into the adjoining cubicle and I mounted the desk so I could throw the balloons over the divider onto my unsuspecting teacher. As I stood on the desk, it started to crack.

After high school I wanted to share the love of God I recently discovered, so I had gone to Youth With a Mission and studied how to use performing arts to reach children and teens. We were instructed on biblical topics and also took classes like mime, theatre and clowning.

And so there I was, standing on a cracking desk. The next thing I heard was a horrible crash. Suddenly I was on the floor beside a broken computer. Seconds later the owner of the computer, Dave, walked through the door. “I’d better leave before I say something I will regret,” he said.

Hot tears of shame smeared my clown makeup. I wanted to hide. The other students comforted me. But their kindness slid uselessly off my cloak of self-hatred. Words I heard so often in my childhood echoed in my head: “How could you be so stupid?”

Dave was working as a missionary with his wife and three kids and could afford only the essentials. I knew he did not have the money to repair his computer. I was also a missionary. People sponsored me while I learned to work with youth. I did not have the money to pay for computer repairs either.

I slunk back to my room, dreading the supper hour when everyone would gather in the dining room. Red-haired, Irish Dave was known as a passionate man with a bit of a fiery temper and he loved his computer! What would he say to me? How could I have been so foolish as to stand on a flimsy, flakeboard desk?

I ate my dinner quietly, not really tasting the food – too many tears had diluted my taste buds. Then I felt two strong arms firmly hug me from behind and heard the words, “I forgive you.” It was Dave.

I wept with relief. I felt like I had been given an invaluable gift. I deserved to be yelled at, to be reproved. Instead I got a big warm hug and forgiveness.

I still had to cover the $200 in computer repairs, but God was faithful to provide for me. When the bill came, my classmates pitched in and helped me pay.

All our classroom teaching on forgiveness became three-dimensional through Dave’s divine act, and to this day his gift is one of my heart’s pictures of forgiveness. I broke something temporal of Dave’s and in exchange, he gave me something eternal. May I be so generous with those around me.

Sandra Reimer lives in Kitchener, Ont.