Do you ever get a birthday present ready a long time ahead of the date? If you love someone dearly, perhaps you start thinking of what would be nice to give them long before the day arrives. I heard of a Christian lady who had one little girl, Jean, who also knew the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. Jean’s mother loved her greatly. The mother put away carefully a sum of money which she planned to give her young daughter on her tenth birthday.
However, God had planned differently for young Jean, and before she reached the age of ten, the Lord took her to Himself, beyond the reach of earthly treasures.
Not long before she died she said, “Oh, Mother, I wish I could take one little child home with me to Jesus, if it were only a baby. I would be so thankful if it were a beggar child, and I would be so glad if I could take it home with me to Jesus. Mother, tell every child I know, that it is my last wish that they would all come home to Jesus.”
Her parting words on earth were, “Jesus, Jesus,” and with that precious name on her lips she breathed her last. She was at home with the Lord Jesus, whom she had received as her own personal Saviour down here; at home with the One who loved her and died for her.
After Jean’s death, her kind mother did not consider that birthday money she had been keeping her own, but thought, “How shall I spend this money, as my dear Jean would wish?”
As Jean’s parting wish had been that every child she knew would come home to heaven also, her mother decided to buy some Bibles, and to give one to each of Jean’s young friends. Wasn’t that a lovely way to fulfill the last wish of her departed daughter! I am sure she prayed for Jean’s young friends, that God’s precious Word would be used in richest blessing to the salvation of their never-dying souls. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Hebrews 4:1212For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12). I trust that those who received the Bibles were soon able to say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Romans 1:1616For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16).
May you too, dear reader, prove the power of God’s Word unto the salvation of your soul, and then you also will spend eternity “at home with Jesus,”
ML 03/15/1953