|
Jesus Really Does Love You!
Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their
church, the Pastor and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and
hand out Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time
for the two of them to head out to the streets with their tracts, it was
very cold, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest
clothes and said, "Okay Dad, I'm ready."
Pastor Dad asked, "Ready for what?"
"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out."
"Son," dad replied, "it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."
The boy gives his dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people
still going to Hell,
even though it's raining?"
Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather."
Despondently the boy asks, "Dad, can I go . . . Please?"
His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here's the
tracts, and be careful son."
"Thanks, Dad!" And with that he was off and out into the rain.
This 11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and
handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel tract. After two hours of
walking in the rain he was soaking wet and chilled to the bone, with his
very last tract to be given out. He stopped on a corner and looked for
someone to hand the tract to but the streets were totally deserted.
Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to
the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell ~ but nobody
answered. He rang it again and again but still no one answered. He waited
but still no answer. Finally he turned to leave but something stopped him.
Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the
door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front
porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the
doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady. She softly asked, "What can I
do for you, son?" With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this
little boy said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to
tell you that Jesus really does love you! I came to give you my very last
Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love." With
that, he handed her his last tract, and left. She called to him, "Thank you,
son. And God bless you!"
Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the pulpit
and as the service
began he asked, "Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?"
Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As
she began to speak,
a look of glorious radiance came over her face.
"None of you in this church know me. I've never been here before. You see,
before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband has passed on, some
time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a
particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart . . . as I
came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.
So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my
home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the
chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck.
Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off
when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I
thought, 'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.' I waited and
waited ~
but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent and then
the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again,
'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me!'
So I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the
while the bell rang louder.
When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes! There, on
my front porch, was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen
in my life! His smile! Oh, I could never describe it to you! And the words
that came from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been dead, to leap
to life as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I just came to
tell you that Jesus Really Does Love You!' Then he gave me this gospel tract
that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out into
the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this
Gospel tract. Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I
wouldn't be needing them anymore.
You see, I am now a happy child of the King, and since the address of your
church was on the back of the Gospel tract I have come here to personally
say, 'Thank you to God's little angel who came just in the nick of time, and
by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.' "
There were no dry eyes in the church. As shouts of praise and honor to the
Lord resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended
from the pulpit to the front pew and took his little angel in his arms and
sobbed.
<>< Author known to God
><>
|
|