One day Thomas Edison came home and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”
His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child:
“Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.”
Many, many years after Edison’s mother died and he was one of the greatest inventors of the century, he was looking through old family things. Suddenly, he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper was written:
“Your son is mentally ill. We won’t let him come to school any more.”
Edison cried for hours and then wrote in his diary:
“Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.”
There are many unsung heroes in our lives; we may be unaware of some by whom our true identity is defined as was the case with Edison. Let me share about one who is my greatest hero. He can be yours too. His name is Jesus.
Once, I was taught an important lesson which changed my life.
I was in Paradise and saw many children everywhere, ‘innocents’ engaged in numerous activities and exploration, overflowing with joy, peace, wonder and a purity that was breathtaking beyond words.
The next moment, some of them noticed my presence and gathered around with wide-eyed curiosity. One of them enquired:
“We have seen the ‘mark of the overcomer’ stamped upon you. How was it possible to succeed within a world filled with so much cruelty and evil?”
Without hesitation, I replied:
“It was all of Him, I claim no merit for myself. I simply needed to make good choices. If sometimes I failed, He picked me up and held me so close my tears would combine with His own. He truly is my hero!”
“All of Him, all of Him,” they sang as they nodded in approval and sauntered happily away.
I reflected upon this encounter and marvelled at their uncomplicated trust and spontaneity compared to the safety nets I sometimes surrounded my life with. It was then that I better understood the meaning of greatness reflected in my role
model – my hero – Jesus.
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honoured him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and
call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honour of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11 – The Message)
