AN OLD ragged, tramp knocked at the back door of a New Hampshire home one morning, and asked for something to eat. The mother of the home invited the poor old fellow into the kitchen to rest, and while preparing a good meal for him she learned that at one time he had had a good home and a wife and children.
Drink had driven him from one sin to another until his family deserted him. He then drifted from place to place and deeper and deeper into sin until he had no desire or ambition to do anything but to tramp and beg. He believed that no one cared what became of him and it didn’t matter much to himself either.
A small son in the home sat near the table watching the old man. Filly he walked over to the poor fellow and placed his little hand on the dirty, ragged coat sleeve and looked up at the sin-marked face.
“Man, does you love Dod?” he asked. He repeated the question seral times and getting no reply he said, “Well, man, Dod loves you.”
The tramp’s eyes filled with tears and his hand trembled but he made no answer. The little boy then went to his room and returned with ten pennies that had been given to him for candy. He placed them in the hand of the old man saying, “Man, this will buy some milk.” The poor fellow’s head went down on the table and the tears of years were shed there.
He left the house without saying a word and was unheard of for many months. At last a letter in a cramped handwriting came addressed to the child saying, “Little one, through you I have been saved from going to hell. After I left your house I walked along the country road and all I could hear, was, “Man, Dod loves you.” I fell asleep that night under a tree and dreamed of a fair, curly-haired child, with his little hand on my sleeve, saying over and over, “Man, Dod loves you.”
“That was all I could hear and see for days, until I threw myself on the ground and wept all the hardness out of my heart. I saw again the man I used to be, the cozy home I had owned, the loving wife and the dear children that sin had taken from my side. I thought of all I had sacrificed to serve the devil and of what he had made me, who had once been pure and sweet as the little child who brought that message from God to me. I cried out, ‘Oh God, if it isn’t too late, make me a child once more and let me see that little lad in heaven some day, if I never do here.’ "
God had heard the cries of the repentant old man, for Jesus died for sinners, and God delights to forgive all those who come to Him by way of the Saviour. And so the old man went on to say, “I have a job now and clothes and a place to sleep. I’m an old man and I won’t be here long, but God bless you, child, because you led an old dirty tramp back to God. I know when death comes and I reach the cold, dark river, a sweet childish voice will float out to me saying, ‘Man, Dod loves you.’ "
ML-04/21/1974