Barbara was a strong, high-spirited little child. One day she was sitting on the floor busily engaged in playing with and arranging her toys, of which she was very fond, when suddenly a thoughtful expression passed over her face, and stopping short in the midst of an animated conversation with her doll, she rushed up to her mother, and said,
“Mother, tell me, is it really true that God loves me; does He really love little Barbara?”
“Yes, my child,” said her mother, “God really loves little Barbara, and He loved you so much that he sent His Son to die for you. He loved you, but He did not love your sin, which made you black all over in His sight, and it was because He loved you so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to suffer for you on the Cross, so that being washed in His Blood you might be made perfectly clean and white, and thus fit to dwell with Him in glory. He loved you so much that He wanted to have you with Him, and He knew that nothing less than the precious Blood of Jesus could make you clean and white, and so God sent His Son to bleed and die on the bitter Cross that all who believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). And you know,
Looking in mother’s face, Barbara said, “Does Jesus love me better than you do, mother?”
“Yes, my child, far better. I have never died for you; the Lord Jesus has.”
“And does Jesus love me now?”
“Yes, my child. He loves you now, this moment, although He is in the glory.”
Hiding her face in her mother’s lap, little Barbara said,
Then I love Him! I love Him! I do love Him!”
Thus was the little girl led to rejoice in Christ’s love to her.
From that day on, Barbara was a living testimony that she was the Lord’s. All around her noticed a marked change in her little ways. She would always try and tell others how Jesus loved them, in her own childish way, with a beaming smile on her face, and if they did not heed it, or seemed touched with such divine love, she would look up and say in the saddest tone,
“But don’t you love Him back again? I do.”
ML 08/10/1941