One day Emmie was sitting on the doorstep waiting for Daddy to come home. Daddy, and his nine-year-old Emmie were missionaries in the land of Mexico. When Emmie was just six years old God had taken her mother to heaven to be with Himself, but she and Daddy had continued to live with the Mexicans to help them, and to tell them about the Lord Jesus who had come to seek and to save them.
Among the Mexicans were priests and people of an untrue religion who hated Emmie and her father because some of the people were leaving their own religion and accepting the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
As Emmie sat waiting for Daddy, suddenly something dark was thrown over her head! As strong arms caught her up Emmie struggled, kicking and biting. Then something struck her head, and everything became dark!
When she awakened her eyes were so swollen she could not open them at first. Finally, one eye opened just a bit, and she could see that she was in a small, dark room, with only a mat and a stool in it. There was a small window, so Emmie pushed the stool over to it, and climbing upon it tried to see out. But the window was too high, and all she could see was the blue sky. Gradually she could not see even that as the sky grew dark, and it was soon nighttime.
What a dark, lonely, fearful night that was! How glad Emmie was that she knew the Lord Jesus, and that she could talk to Him, and ask Him to take care of her!
The next morning her eyes hurt dreadfully, and though she could open them now, she could not see at all! All was dark!
Groping about blindly Emmie found that someone had brought her food in the night while she had been sleeping. There was a cup of water, a small hard roll, and a banana. Emmie reached for the water eagerly, for she was so thirsty, but because she could not see she tipped the cup over, and the precious water spilled upon the floor!
It almost seemed too much for poor, little Emmie. Then she remembered the words, "Call upon me in the day of trouble," from God's own Word. So call she did, loudly over and over! And God did hear, she was not forgotten. God was using Emmie to work out a wonderful purpose of His own!
A little later Emmie heard footsteps, then the door opened. Frightened, she waited as the footsteps came near her, for she could not see. Then she felt a woman's arms about her, and a voice saying, "Little one, do not be frightened. You have nothing to fear if you will just be a good girl and do as you are told."
"The Lord Jesus will take care of me," answered Emmie. "He loves me, and I have prayed to Him and asked Him to take care of me. He loves you, too!"
"You must not talk like that," the woman answered. "We will teach you a different way to pray!"
The woman left, but came back now and then to bring food and to talk a little with Emmie. Sometimes she would find Emmie praying, and sometimes she would be praying for the woman.
"Jesus loves you, too," she would say to the woman, "and died on the cross for your sins!"
But the woman would not listen. One time, taking her by the hand, she led her out of the room and to another place. Emmie did not know where she was, but she heard a man's voice, and she was told that this was a holy man, and that she must kneel and kiss his hand! Emmie remembered that the Bible said she must only worship God, so she would not bow down and kiss his hand, no matter how they scolded and threatened her! Then they placed something in her hand, and told her to say prayers after them. But the words did not seem right to Emmie who had been taught to talk to God as she would to her own dear father, so she would not repeat the words after them. Besides, her head ached, and, oh! how she wanted her Daddy!
In anger, the woman brought her back to the little room. Before leaving her the woman said, "Little one, you will have to stay here and think, until you repent of your stubborn refusal to do as you are told!"
Emmie heard the door close, and the lock turn. Once again she was alone. She still could not see, but she kept praying to her heavenly Father, "Please keep Your everlasting arms under me, and do help me out of here!"
A few moments after the woman had gone Emmie's hand struck something hard and sharp on the floor near her. It was a pair of scissors! The woman who brought her back must have dropped them.
Emmie picked them up, and not having anything else to do she began to cut off her curls-curls that were a pretty red, not black ones like the other little girls in that country had.
When she could feel no more curls she wondered, "Now, what shall I do?"
Something seemed to make her think to throw them out of the window, so climbing upon the little stool she dropped them out, one by one.
Each day Emmie's father went up and down the streets looking and listening for some sign or sound of his dear little girl. One day he spied one of those bright curls on the ground near the building where Emmie was kept a prisoner. Picking it up tenderly, he thanked God, and carefully watched the windows in that building.
Meanwhile Emmie's eyes grew worse. The woman who was caring for her became frightened, for she had thought they would soon be better. She had grown fond of little Emmie, and had become greatly impressed with Emmie's trust in the Lord, and in her saying, "Jesus loves you, too!"
Finally she decided she must get her to a doctor, or to someone who could help her eyes. So after dark that night, the woman took Emmie in her arms and carried her down a ladder, and out the back way.
The Lord led Emmie's father down that way just at that time, so it did not surprise him to see Emmie being brought along the street by the woman!
Quickly he caught Emmie into his arms and ran down the dark street leaving the woman far behind. Oh, how happy they were to know that God had cared for them, and had shown them the way to find one another!
But Emmie was almost completely blind. The light hurt her eyes, and they seemed to grow worse instead of better.
The doctors could not help, for the blow she had received on her head had injured a nerve, and all they could do was pray.
For a year Emmie was blind, and the Lord taught her many wonderful lessons in patience and prayer! She even learned to knit without the use of her eyes, for a kind woman came in often to help her and to teach her.
Emmie learned to love this new kind friend, and they had many good talks together as Emmie told her about the Lord Jesus and His love.
"He loves you so much that He died that you might live, and have all your sins washed away."
"But perhaps I am too great a sinner," the woman would say.
"Oh, no!" Emmie happily assured her. "Jesus died for all the sins in the whole world."
One day Emmie had so much pain she felt she could hardly bear it. Then something seemed to burst-and she could see again! How very wonderful God's world looked to Emmie then! Her heart was so full of thankfulness she felt she could not thank the Lord enough!
But the Lord had even more happiness in store for Emmie, for the kind woman who had cared for her accepted the Lord Jesus as her Savior, and told Emmie's father that she would like to be baptized.
"First, I must tell you something," she said. Drawing up her sleeve she showed Emmie's father a scar upon her arm made by someone's teeth!
"What is that? It looks like a dog bite." "No, not a dog-your little girl did that."
"Why, how awful! And you have been so kind to her."
"Oh, no, sir! She did it when I threw the sack over her head to kidnap her! Oh, sir, can you ever forgive me? I love the Lord Jesus, and He has forgiven me. Can you forgive me, too?"
With tears running down his face the missionary took her arm and said, "Sister, I forgave you long ago! I have been praying for you, not knowing who you were!"
This woman became a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus, and went about everywhere telling others the wonderful story of Jesus' love. Even after she became an old, old lady, and was blind herself, she still loved to tell the story she had learned from little Emmie whom she kidnapped!