Mr. and Mrs. Foster said good-by to Barbara and went off to hear the usual Sunday evening sermon. I am sorry to say that Mr. Foster was not a Christian at all, and the preacher knew this too. There are many people who are very religious but who have never accepted the Lord Jesus as their own Saviour. I suppose they feel that they are not really bad enough to need their sins washed away.
Very carefully, and with the very best of English, the preacher told the gospel story and earnestly appealed to any unsaved ones to trust in the Lord Jesus. But Mr. and Mrs. Foster rose when the meeting was over and went home just as they had come, unsaved. Shortly after they reached home, Mr. Foster went upstairs to tuck his little Barbara in bed and give her a gooight kiss.
A little tear was slowly slipping down her cheek, and another was just ready to follow it.
“What is it, Barbara dear? Why are you crying?”
“I was just thinking of what teacher told me in Sunday school this afternoon.”
“And what was that, Barbara?”
“She told us that Jesus came down from heaven to die for us. I know I have often heard it before, Daddy, but just think, He came to die for me—poor me. Oh, Daddy, I do love Him so, don’t you?”
Mr. Foster gave her another quick kiss and then turned suddenly and hurried to his own room. The fine sermon was all forgotten, but Barbara’s tears had touched his heart. His own dear little daughter knew that Jesus really died for her and she loved Him. And yet he knew that his own heart had never yet been opened to the Saviour. On bowed knees he confessed himself a sinner before a holy God, and accepted the Lord Jesus personally as his Saviour. With a rejoicing heart, and this time with tears in his own eyes, he slipped back and gave his sleeping daughter another kiss.
ML 09/05/1954