Nobody wanted Roy. He had been found all alone in a poor little shack in Toronto, because his father had deserted him when he was a very sick boy. The Children’s Hospital had given him medical care, and now he was up and around and a big problem to everybody there in the hospital.
Howls from the playroom were very common. “Roy pushed over my tower.” “Roy took my doll.” “Roy crashed my truck.” Nothing was any fun if Roy was there, and he was only five years old.
On Sundays the hospital gave permission for a Sunday school class, but it was impossible for anyone to listen if Roy was there. So Roy was locked in a little room by himself until the lesson was over.
One Sunday Mr. Willis visited the hospital, and they told him about the little boy in a room by himself. Do you know how that Christian man felt about that little boy? How did the Lord Jesus feel about unwanted sinners, like the poor man in Mark chapter 5? Did Jesus set out to find good people and stay away from that poor man that nobody wanted to go near? Oh, no! Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous [good people], but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).
Mr. Willis asked to be locked in the little room with Roy, and he began to tell the boy that Jesus loved him.
“That’s not true,” Roy answered. “Nobody likes Roy.”
“But Jesus does,” insisted Mr. Willis. “It says so in His book, right here.”
“Who is Jesus?” asked Roy.
“He is the Son of God. And He gave Himself, His whole self, and He died for you because He loves you.”
“I want to see it in your book. Where does it say that Jesus loves Roy?”
Mr. Willis opened the Bible to Galatians 2:20. “Here it is,” he said, pointing to the verse.
Roy took the Bible and studied that spot for a long time. Finally he said, “Where’s the ‘R’ ?”
Roy had never learned to read anything but his own initial, and it was not there.
“No,” said Mr. Willis, “it is not there. But if it said, ‘Jesus loves Roy,’ we might think it meant Roy Johnson who always seems to be a good boy. But it says, ‘ The Son of God, who loved ME, and gave Himself for ME.’ I like it best that way, because it means ME.”
“Does it really mean that Jesus loves ME?” asked Roy.
“Yes, and He gave Himself for YOU.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. That’s exactly what it says. Do YOU want the Lord Jesus, Roy?”
Yes, Roy wanted Jesus. And the love of Jesus changed Roy’s whole life.
Do YOU want Jesus? He will change your life too.
ML-10/01/2000