When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me how to make a whistle. We would cut a short piece of cane-stalk between the joints, clip a hole in it, blow “just right” in one end . . . behold, a whistle.

Sometimes we’d get a piece that wouldn’t work. Granddaddy wouldn’t spend much time with such a reed. If it didn’t work soon he’d break it, throw it away, and start on another.

The Lord doesn’t treat us like a disappointing whistle. “A bruised reed he will not break.” He doesn’t give up on us and leave us broken, rejected, and forgotten. He is patient--”a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

When Jesus looks at men He sees their possibilities--what they can become. When He sees a sinful life He doesn’t see a castaway but a bruised reed that may be made useful; a smouldering wick that may be fanned into flame.

Dr. Hugh Black said of Jesus: “In the company of sinners, He dreamed of saints.” True! He was always looking for a person’s possibilities instead of his faults. Your sin may cut you off from man. But Christ patiently waits for the first spark of penitence. He will fan that spark into the flame of a new and better life.