CHILDREN are sometimes afraid of the dark. Jimmy was four years old, and so much afraid in the dark, he always wanted a light to be let in his room when he went to bed.
One night, as he was about to retire his mother said, “Jimmy, you ha’ nothing to fear, for God takes care His little ones in the dark as well as the light.”
“I know it,” said Jimmy, “but I can’t help being afraid.”
“Do you ask God to help you, so that you may not be afraid?”
“No,” was his serious reply.
“Then I would: He hears prayer.”
A little time after this he asked his mother for an apple. She told him he could have it if he would go into the cellar and get it for himself. A few moments after, she saw him go into another room and kneel behind the door. Then she heard this little prayer: “Lord, do You love me? I love You. Don’t let me be afraid.”
Then he arose from his knees, went down into a dark cellar, and bravely got an apple from a barrel in the darkest corner.
“Weren’t you afraid?” asked Mother. “No,” replied Jimmy. “God didn’t let me be afraid.”
Dear little Jimmie! We hope he remembers this precious lesson all the rest of his days down here.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid.” Ps. 27:1.
ML-04/17/1960