Seven-year-old Carla lived in an old apartment building in the city. The area around the building was mostly cement except for the small yard right behind the building. There weren’t any flowers or bushes in the yard, but at least it was a yard where she could play.
One day as Carla and her friend Elaine were coming home from school, they saw some beautiful roses growing on a trellis on the side of a house.
As the two girls stopped to smell the flowers, Elaine said, “I don’t think the people who live here would care if we took just one rose. They are so pretty.”
Carla was a Christian, but she didn’t think the owners would care either. The two of them tiptoed up to the trellis, and each girl picked off a rose. Then they hurried away, hoping the owners did not see them.
Carla began to feel very guilty as she walked home. The rose was so pretty and she loved its smell, but she knew she had sinned, and she knew God had seen her steal. Just before she reached home, she put the rose in her jacket pocket so that her mother wouldn’t ask her questions about it.
A few days later when her mother was brushing off Carla’s jacket, she noticed the wilted rose in her pocket. “Where did this come from?” she asked. “We don’t have any red roses around here.”
Poor Carla started to cry, and then she told her mother how she had picked the rose. Her mother had to punish her for stealing, but I am sure that Carla learned her lesson. She got down on her knees and told the Lord Jesus what she had done.
Although we are all sinners, God has a message for each one of us. The message of the gospel is that God loves us and has provided a way that any sinner who comes to Him may have his or her sins washed away. This is possible through the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, can cleanse us from all sin. Will you accept Him now as your very own Saviour?
ML-05/29/2016