DIANE PATMONT was a high school student in Oakland, California. She was 15 years old, a happy, peppy girl, active in school and at home. But Diane felt an emptiness in her life. She spoke of it with her classmates and had long conversions with them and others about the purpose of her life. At last she went to a Christian man who told her about the Lord Jesus Christ.
“I found that it isn’t religion that’s important,” she said, “but that it is knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, and trusting Him. I got down on my knees and accepted the Lord Jesus into my heart and was saved.”
Now Diane’s heart was filled with joy and she told her classmates and others about it. Outwardly she was the same peppy girl but in her heart was a newfound peace concerning her life.
Last April, when there was a school holiday, Diane’s parents planned a quick trip back to Iowa with their two daughters. Off they went, filled with thoughts of happiness and looking forward to their visit with friends. All went well as the travelers made their way over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, past Ely, Nevada some 50 miles. It was raining now, and somehow, on the rain-slick highway the car went out of control, off the highway and down an embankment.
Diane was thrown a distance from the car, mortally hurt. The parents and her sister were all seriously injured, too, but her father was able to get to where Diane lay.
“Daddy, am I dying?” she asked.
Her father told her that he thought she would not die, but even with that, Diane understood how seriously hurt she was.
“I’m not afraid,” she said. “I know where I’m going.”
Soon an ambulance arrived to carry the injured ones to the hospital. The doctors did what they could for her but three hours later Diane died.
Some days passed and then Diane’s closest chum remembered that just before she left on the trip, Diane had telephoned to tell her of a letter she had written. Now the young companion went to Diane’s room and there she found the note.
“I found out something very important this year,” she wrote. “It was an answer to every problem I’ve ever had or will have. I found that it isn’t religion that’s important, but that it’s knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour, and trusting Him.
“Before I was saved, there was an emptiness in my life, but now my life is complete — I’m saved through Christ Jesus.
“I know! For a person who doesn’t know the Lord as their Saviour, this sounds as though I don’t know what I’m talking about. But, on October 28, I got down on my knees and accepted the Lord Jesus into my heart and was saved. Since then, the Lord has changed my heart and He will do this for you if you will only let Him. Read the Bible and you will see what I am talking about. Please do what I have said and remember this, “‘And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.’” 1 John 5:11, 1211And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12) and 13.
“Please remember that He lives today and He answers prayer,” Diane’s letter continued. “Please get on your knees now and accept Him into your heart, if you never have before. You will never know peace until you do. Please do it. He’s waiting.”
And then the letter concluded with this: “Please tell everyone whom I know, about my faith in Jesus Christ. He’s real.”
Many people prepare a “last will and testament” in which they tell the way in which their riches are to be distributed after their death. The leer Diane Patmont wrote was like a will and in it she gives you the way to have the same riches that she found when she took Christ as her Saviour. That way is to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ as a lost, guilty sinner and to there take Him as your own personal Saviour. “Please do it. He’s waiting.”
ML-02/16/1964