Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the
Pastor and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out
Gospel tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the
Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very
cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his
warmest and driest clothes and said "Okay Dad, I'm ready."
His Pastor Dad asked, "Ready for what?
"Dad, it's time we gather our tracts together and go out."
Dad responds, "Son, it's very cold outside and it's pouring down rain."
The boy gives his Dad a surprised look, asking, "But Dad, aren't people
still going to Hell, even though it's raining?"
Dad answers, "Son, I am not going out in this weather."
Despondently the boy asks, "Dad, can I go -- Please?"
His father hesitated for a moment then said, "Son, you can go. Here's the
tracts; be careful son."
"Thanks, Dad!" And with that he was off and out into the rain.
This 11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town going door-to-door and
handing everybody he met in the street a Gospel tract. After 2-hours of
walking in the rain he was soaking bone-chilled wet and down to his very
last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract
to but the streets were totally deserted.
Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to
the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell -- but nobody
answered. He rang it again and again but still no one answered. He waited
but still no answer.
Finally this 11-year-old trooper turned to leave but something stopped
him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on
the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the
front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing
in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady.
She softly asked, "What can I do for you, son?"
With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy
said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you
that Jesus Really Does Love You! I came to give you my very last Gospel
tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love."
With that, he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave. She called
to him as he departed, "Thank you, son! And God bless you!"
Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the pulpit
and as the service began he asked, "Does anybody have a testimony or want
to say anything?"
Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet.
As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face.
"None of you in this church know me. I've never been here before. You see,
before last Sunday I was not a Christian. My husband has passed on, some
time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a
particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart . . . as
I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to
live.
"So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of
my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood
on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck.
"Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap
off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me.
I thought, 'I'll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.'
"I waited and waited -- but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and
more insistent and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I
thought to myself again, 'Who on earth could this be? Nobody ever rings
my bell or comes to see me!'
"I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the
while the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I
could hardly believe my eyes!
"There on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had
ever seen in my life! His smile! Oh, I could never describe it to you! And
the words that came from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been
dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, 'Ma'am, I
just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.'
"Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my hand. As the
little angel disappeared back out, into the cold and rain, I closed my
door and read slowly every word of this Gospel tract. Then I went up to my
attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn't be needing them any more.
"You see, I am now a happy child of the King, and since the address of
your church was on the back of this Gospel tract I have come here to
personally say, 'Thank you to God's little angel who came just in the nick
of time, and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.'"
There were now no dry eyes in the church.
As shouts of praise and honor to the Lord resounded off the very rafters
of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew
where the little angel was seated. He took him in his arms and sobbed
uncontrollably.
