In a little upstairs room three elderly ladies were hard at work sewing. They were poor and sewed to make their living.
Just then a little child’s sweet voice sounded from somewhere downstairs. “Listen,” said the oldest lady, “I hear a child singing!”
“Let’s ask her to come up,” suggested the youngest of the three, and soon she returned with a little girl named Betty.
“What were you singing, Betty?”
“I was just playing Sunday school,” she answered. “I go to Sunday school every Sunday, and then I come home and do it over for Mother and Baby, and for my little brother who is lame. Shall I sing it for you?”
“Oh, please do,” said all the three ladies at once.
So sweetly and clearly little Betty sang the children’s gospel hymn: When mothers of Salem Their children brought to Jesus, The stern disciples drove them back, And bade them depart; But Jesus saw them ere they fled, And took them in His arms and said, Suffer the children to come unto Mel As she sang the oldest of the three wiped the tears from her eyes: “Now we’ll read,” said the little girl, “but I’m afraid there aren’t enough Bibles to go around.”
So opening her little Bible she read: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.”
“Teacher said we are like silly sheep, and the Lord is like a loving Shepherd. If we trust in Him we shall never want any good thing, because He knows all about us. I know it’s true ‘cause Mother and Baby were both sick, and we were all hungry, and when we prayed, God sent us something to eat.”
Then quickly closing her Bible, Betty said, “I must not be long, ‘cause I left Baby asleep and Mother trusts me.”
“Come again,” the three ladies called after her as she picked her way down the dark stairs.
The oldest of the three kept on sewing but she was thinking hard. Once she had had a little girl of her own, but she had never taught her about Jesus. Now God had sent a little child to teach her.
Betty came again, not once but many times, and each time the old lady learned new truths. Then one day she took her place as a sinner and asked the Lord Jesus to be her own Saviour. She was saved and happy, and the Lord blessed her.
Do you belong to the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep? If you do there are many lonely, hungry hearts that you could make happy with the message of the Saviour’s love, just by singing to them, or telling them what you know about the Lord Jesus.
ML-08/27/1978