A POOR GOD-FEARING widow, evicted from her home on the mountain side, was forced to walk ten miles over the hills, carrying her only child, to the home of a relative. The weather was warm and sunny when she started, but as she was crossing the pass a storm blew up. She did not reach her friend’s house.
The next day a dozen men searched for her. At the summit of the pass they found her in the snow, stripped almost naked, and dead. In a nook in some rocks they found her little son, wrapped in his mother’s garments, asleep but well.
Time passed, and a young evangelist, son of the minister who had conducted the poor widow’s funeral, was preaching the gospel in a large city. The night was stormy, it was snowing and the audience was small. The snowstorm remind him of the story of the widow and her son, and he told it that night.
Some days after he was asked to come at once to visit a dying man. The man was a stranger to him.
“You do not know me,” he said, “but I know you. Although I have lived in this city for many years, I have never attended a gospel service. The other day I heard singing outside a hall and slipped into a back seat. There I heard you tell the story of the widow and her son. Never did I forget my mother’s love, but I never saw the love of the Saviour in giving Himself for me until now. It was God Himself that made you tell that story. My mother did not die in vain. Her prayer is answered.” He had found Christ. The seeking Saviour had found His wandering sheep and claimed him for His own. Now the man looked forward to meeting his dear mother in heaven.
“My mother did not die in vain!” And the Lord Jesus did not die in vain, for millions of redeemed souls will be in heaven on the merits of His precious blood. Will you be there, dear reader? Only yourself can keep you out. If you are not there the death of Jesus Christ will be in vain so far as you are concerned.
Think of how much He loved you to die for you. Come to Him now. Accept Him as your Saviour, and say to Him, “Lord Jesus, so far as I am concerned Thou didst not die in vain.”
ML-04/18/1976