Lee was a drunkard. He had broken his poor Christian wife’s heart, but before she died, she told little Janet, their only child, never to leave her father. “Be patient and kind to him, Janet,” she said, “and try to win him back from his sinful ways.”
After her mother’s death, however, Lee treated his little daughter shamefully. He swore at her, beat her, and sometimes turned her out of the house at night. Still she never left him.
One night about eleven o’clock a neighbor was going home. He found Janet sitting on her door step; it was raining and she was wet to the skin. Her drunken father had driven her out some time before and she had sat down on the step to listen for his heavy snoring before she crept back into bed. The kind-hearted neighbor tried to persuade the little girl to go home with him, but she would not leave her father. Things went on like this for months.
At length her father grew less violent to his self-denying child. One day at the tavern, after a heavy drinking spree, he had fallen asleep. He woke up to find his child at his side waiting to lead him home. He turned to her, and in tones almost tender said, “Janet, what makes you stay with me?”
“Because I love you, Daddy.”
“You love me! — a poor, miserable drunk. Everyone else despises me; why don’t you?”
“Dear Daddy,” said the little girl, her eyes brimming with tears, “Moy taught me to love you; and every night it seems, in my dreams, as if she comes and stands by my bed and says, ‘Janet, don’t leave your Daddy. Some day he will get free from the power of drink. God will deliver him from his evil ways, and then how happy you will be!’ "
Poor Lee broke down before such love as this. He took his little girl up in his arms and wept over her like a child. That was the turning point in his life. From that day on he became a sober man.
Does not this illustrate the more wonderful love of Jesus? How many have turned to Him from their sins to love and serve Him because of the power of His love. “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:1919We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19).) It was love that brought Him down from heaven to go to Calvary’s cross for us. It was love that held Him there until redemption’s work was complete. Now He can save the worst sinner and all who put their trust in Him.
ML-04/10/1977