Much of Brenda’s little life was lived in fear. Her mother and daddy quarreled constantly, and for the three of them life was miserable much of the time. When Mother disappeared, Brenda knew that her mother had all she could take, and Brenda’s heart was broken. Life was full of heartaches and darkness for both the little girl and her father, and certainly for the mother.
None of them knew the Lord, nor read His blessed Word. How different it would have been for them if they had! O what a difference it makes when He is taken into our lives and into our homes and His love is shed abroad in the family atmosphere!
Christian neighbors had prayed many times for this family, and now that the mother was gone, they interceded more earnestly. Then when they learned that Brenda’s daddy wasn’t coming home till late at night, they began inviting the little girl to have supper with them. Brenda accepted gladly because she was lonesome and hungry.
Around the family table Brenda learned about Jesus who loves to lift up the broken-hearted and to comfort the weary and the sad. The family did all they could to show love to Brenda and to make her life easier. Little by little she learned that the beautiful home life they shared with her was because Jesus had saved them, had taken away their sins and guilt, and had given them a new life and a new hope beyond this world. Brenda never had known that any home could be such a taste of heaven.
One night around the table as they read the Scriptures and talked of Jesus and heavenly things, Brenda opened her heart to the Lord and accepted Him as her Saviour. At once she experienced the joy of salvation, for all her guilt and fear were gone. Overnight she became a happy child, and the next day she went about smiling and singing for joy in her Saviour.
Her father noticed her skipping and singing—something she had never done since she was just a tiny girl.
“How can you be so happy without Mother?” he asked.
Then she told him she had learned to trust and love the Lord Jesus who had now come to live in her heart.
The disappointments and emptiness of his life helped make her father desirous of having this joy and happiness, too. The time came when he, too, turned to Him who never turns anyone away. Humbly he confessed his wrong and sinful past to the Lord, and asked Him to come into his heart and be his Saviour from then on. He, too, tasted the joy of salvation and became a happy Christian.
Now their thoughts were about Mother far away, and they both began to pray, asking the Lord to send her home again. As they prayed, their faith was strengthened, and they counted on God to answer their prayers. “There is nothing too hard for the Lord.”
God answered their prayers, for Mother decided to come back, and they made preparations for her homecoming. What a happy day it was when she returned, and a happier one when she, too, bowed at the feet of the Saviour and owned His claims of love over her. Reunited, they were closer than ever before, for they were now one in Christ Jesus, who “hath done all things well.”
ML-10/21/1979