A lawyer who holds a high post in West Germany recently became a Christian, though before this he had lived far from God, and was even bold in speaking against Him. Not long after he met an old friend he knew at the university, and he told him the story of his conversion.
He had had a good mother and in his boyhood days he had received from her faithful Christian teachings, but in spite of her exhortations, God to him was but a vague idea and remained far away. He thought of Jesus only as a good and virtuous man who was martyred for His teachings. To his friends he would explain that all that the Bible tells about heaven and hell was a fantastic story.
Yet in spite of this he had brought up his children in the spirit of Christianity, for he could see that “the fear of the Lord” would lead them to better moral behavior.
One evening his little boy Carl was naughty and his father had scolded him. As the little fellow sobbed aloud, he looked up and said, “Daddy, all the naughty things I have done are now written in God’s Book. Can they not be wiped out of the Book again?”
Touched by this anxious inquiry coming from his sobbing little boy, the father answered that these naughty deeds could be wiped from the Book if Carl would ask the Lord’s forgiveness. The little boy sat up eagerly, and then he knelt down to show God his sincerity. A moment later, he begged his father to kneel with him.
“Father,” said he, “I think it would be better if you were to kneel too, then perhaps God will forgive me more gladly.”
Now his father was confused and embarrassed, and even ashamed at the thought of being seen; however, he knelt by his little boy’s side. Then Carl begged his father to do the praying because he could “tell the dear Lord so much better.” So, with his mind and thoughts in a great turmoil, he prayed the strange words and together they said “Amen.”
Then, in a deeply affecting and serious tone, Carl asked his father whether the big “Book” was now wiped quite clean.
“Yes, my boy, quite certainly.”
“What have they wiped it with? A sponge?” questioned the little fellow.
“No, Carl; with the blood of our Saviour.”
Still tearful, the little boy asked, “Father, have your bad deeds been in the Book too? And Mother’s?”
When his father nodded sadly, Carl went on: “But your sins have been wiped out, haven’t they?” At this question, the father felt an inward shaking and trembling as if he stood, not before a tiny boy, but bore the flaming eyes of a holy God and righteous Judge. In a low voice, he answered, “I hope so.”
His wife, who had entered the room and witnessed the scene and heard the conversation, now wept too. Together, father, mother, and their little son began to pray to a merciful God who, though a stranger to them before, had used the little boy in making Himself known through His beloved Son, who came into this world to put away sin. There was blessing in that home from then on, for Christ was honored there.
ML 01/31/1965