I heard recently about a student named Steve Winger from Lubbock, TX who was taking a challenging class in Logic. Both the course and the teacher were known for exacting and demanding exams. The final exam was looming, and the professor mercifully told the class that each student would be permitted to bring in a single 8 x 11 1/2 inch sheet with as much information as they could put on that one sheet for help during the test.

On exam day, each student came to class clutching their precious pieces of paper with as much information as possible. Some students had crammed lines and lines of font so tiny and so numerous onto that single sheet that you had to wonder how they could read it. But Steve walked in with a single blank sheet and a friend who was a senior student and who had an 'A' in logic. Steve bent down and placed that single, blank sheet of paper on the floor next to his desk. His expert friend stood on the paper.

The professor noticed the extra body in the room and asked what he was doing. Steve piped up, "You said we could bring in what ever we could fit on a single piece of paper for help on this test, well, this is my help and he can fit on the paper!" He had followed the instructions to the letter and was the only student in that class to score an 'A' since he had his expert friend standing along side him.

That story reminds me of what God has done for us. We are "tested" on a daily basis, but we have two very special blessings to assist us. First of all, God didn't just send us a piece of paper to tell us what we need to know. Jews were given the "cheat sheet" composed of Ten Commandments chiseled in stone, along with hundreds of other commandments penned on scrolls. But God did more than that for us -- He sent his Son to this earth, to stand with us, to live with us -- not just a set of answers written on paper, but a living, breathing perfect example of what we need to know. Want to know how God would react in any given situation? Look to Jesus.

Then when Jesus returned to His Father, he left a helper with us, a "paraclete" to stand alongside us (no more than that -- within us!), supporting us and guiding us.

What a tremendous blessing, and a comfort to those who are in Christ.