Maria’s father was a soldier in the Army in a Central American country. She had three brothers older than she, whom she loved very much. They were not a very happy family because their mother and father were always fighting, and sometimes they did not have very much to eat. One day their father and mother got very angry with each other, and her father rushed out of the house. Maria sat in a corner crying because she loved her father, and she didn’t like him going out of the house so angry.
A little later their father came home looking serious, but not angry. He sat on a broken old chair near where Maria was sitting, and she climbed up on his lap. He had a little paper which he said someone on the street had given to him. It was a Gospel paper called “Mensajes del amor de Dios” (Messages of God’s Love). He read it to her, but she didn’t understand very much.
Later she saw her father writing to someone, which was something she had never seen him do before. He was writing to the address on the back of the little paper to find out more about the love of God. After this her father was quieter, and he didn’t fight with their mother as much. But one night their mother left them all saying she didn’t want to live with an “Evangelical.”
One day their father took Maria and her brothers to a little hotel nearby to meet a missionary and his wife from Mexico. Every night after that they would go to the hotel to study the Bible. Those were happy days that Maria and her brothers never forgot.
Through the help of other missionaries, Maria’s father was able to get a little hall where he and his family lived in one room and they held Gospel meetings in the other. They also had a Sunday school class where many other boys and girls came to hear about the love of God, and His Son Jesus Christ.
One night one of the missionaries spoke on the verses in John 10:27-3027My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30I and my Father are one. (John 10:27‑30): “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
Little Maria couldn’t sleep that night. She had heard her brothers confess the Lord Jesus as their Saviour. They were so much nicer to her after that. She wanted to know Jesus as her Saviour, too.
The next night she went to one of the missionaries and said, “Brother (that is what her father always called them), I want to be saved.”
The missionary sat down beside her and asked, “You do, Maria? Why?”
She answered, “Because Jesus died to save me from condemnation, and I don’t want to be condemned.”
The missionary said, “Let’s go into your room, and tell the Lord Jesus all about it.”
Her father, the missionary and his wife went into the back room with her. There the missionary prayed for little Maria, and then waited for her father to pray too, but he was so happy he was crying. Suddenly little Maria herself prayed and said, “Dear Lord Jesus, thank-you so much for dying for me on the cross to save me from condemnation. Now I am in Your hands, and Your hands are in God’s hands, and no one can take me out.” This little five-year-old girl had the joy of belonging to the Lord Jesus, and His Father, in a way many grown-ups never understand.
ML-12/14/1980