“I want twenty-four cents worth of round-steak, please!” Robbie watched the butcher take the meat from the glass case. He weighed it carefully and wrapped it in brown paper.
“Here you are Sonny!” The butcher smiled at the eight-year old boy who was seriously handing him a quarter. “And here’s your change.”
Robbie took the penny that the butcher held out and in a few moments he was in the grocery store next door, standing in front of the candy case. He pointed out the piece he wanted, and then he was on his way home, eating his candy as he went.
It was really so easy! And no way in the world that anyone would ever find out!
Robbie had figured this out quite a while back. At least once a week Mother would send him to the store for twenty-five cents worth of round steak. It was so simple to just say “twenty-four cents worth” to the butcher, and then he had a penny for candy and no one would ever know that he was really stealing it.
Robbie was quite proud of himself, the way he had every one fooled. In the day time at least—the nights were another matter! The nights, well! they were pretty fierce sometimes. Robbie had gone to Sunday school since he could remember. His teacher had taught him about the awfulness of sin and that God must punish those who are sinners. She had taught him, too, of God’s love, and about the Lord Jesus dying upon the cross for the sin of all the world.
Then there was another thing she often talked about. It was that the Lord Jesus was coming back again sometime for those that had had their sins taken away and belonged to him. Mother and Dad talked about these things, too, and every day they read from the Bible aloud, and prayed, and Robbie knew that they hoped he would take the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
What would Mom and Dad say if they knew about that penny he so often stole and bought candy with? Robbie didn’t intend that they would ever find out, but he knew that the Lord knew all about it, and it made him pretty uncomfortable in the dark of the night all alone.
Then the worst thought of all would come—the thought that maybe the Lord Jesus would come during the night for those that belonged to Him! Mom and Dad would go, and his little brother and baby sister would, too, for they were too small to understand yet. How dreadful it would be to wake up and find the house empty and still with all of them gone!
“Here’s your penny change!” the butcher would say cheerfully. But Robbie’s heart was growing heavier. Even the candy didn’t seem to taste so good, and at night when God’s Spirit would talk to his heart, he would squirm down under the bedclothes, for Robbie knew that he was a sinner.
One night Robbie’s father took him with him to attend a Salvation Army meeting held in a little store building. Again he heard the story of God’s great love in sending the Lord Jesus to die for the sinner. Robbie wished that he were saved. It was awful to be afraid of God, and so afraid of the coming of the Lord Jesus!
That night in bed he could not sleep. Tears were soaking into his pillow. It seemed so late, but he felt that he just had to talk to his father.
Dad was still up, and when Robbie told him the story, he took his Bible and together they read this wonderful verse: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)).
Robbie knew the verse, but that night the Lord seemed to speak the words to his heart. He was the one that God loved, he was the sinner the Lord Jesus had died for, and he could, and would believe in Him!
Snuggling down into bed a little later, a happy Robbie knew that he would not have to be afraid ever again that the Lord Jesus would come and leave him behind! John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) said: “...whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!”