Having some time to spend at the waiting room where I was taking a car, I gave out some tracts to the people around. I had just sat down when a fresh lot of people came in. So I got up to give out more tracts. My attention was drawn to one poor man whose face and hands were terribly disfigured. He wore large dark glasses. I hardly liked to go up to him for fear he would think it was curiosity on my part. Lifting my heart to God, Who always gives wisdom in time of need, I went forward to him, and holding out a tract, said,
“Will you take this?” At once a glad smile passed over his disfigured face, as he held out what was left of his poor hand, and said,
“That I will, I have so often wished to see you again.”
“Indeed,” I said, “but I don’t remember having met you before.”
“No. I expect not” he said. “When you last saw me, my face, and indeed my whole body was covered with bandages. But you will remember coming to the Emergency Hospital at the time of the great explosion; then it was I saw you, and being afraid I could not recover, and dreading to die, I believed what you told me about the Savior, and I trusted Him, and He did save me. I got well again after many months, and now I am so glad to see you, and to tell you what the Lord has done for me.”
I asked how he was provided for, seeing he was not fit for work. He told me that the house he worked for gave him enough to keep him from want, and that they had promised to give him this as long as he lived, and that if he was ever able to do anything, they would find something for him, so that he could add a little to his income.
“Now that I am converted I do not need much. I neither drink nor smoke. My friends ask me how I can be so happy when I have so little, and am so terribly disfigured. Then I tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ
Who was marred more than any man, and ‘Who loved me, and gave Himself for me’ (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)). Praise His Name.”
Such a glad surprise encourages the worker and confirms the Savior’s worldwide invitation:
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:5858Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58).