Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at
their church, the Pastor and his eleven year old son would go out into their
town and hand out gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came
time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was
very cold outside as well as pouring down rain.
The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and
said - "OK dad, I'm ready."
His Pastor dad asked, "Ready for what?"
"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go
out."
Dad responds, "Son, 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 are the tracts. Be careful son."
"Thanks Dad!"
And with that he was off and out into the rain.
This eleven 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 bone chilled wet and down
to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a
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 door
bell.
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
this eleven year old trooper 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, "Mama, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to
tell you that Jesus really does love you, and 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 turned to
leave.
She called to him as he departed, "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
from her face as she said, "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
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." I loosened the rope from my neck and started
for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder.”
“When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe
my eyes for 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 cherub like voice, "Mam, 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 any more. You see, I am now a happy child of the King,
and since the address of your Church was on the back of this 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 eternity in
hell.”
There were now no dry eyes in the Church. And as shouts
of praise, and honor to the King, resounded off the very rafters of the
building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the
little angel was seated; He took him in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
