“Jim,” said a Christian to his little boy one Sunday afternoon, “Come with me. Let’s take a walk.”
They started off, and after walking a while they came to a poor, broken-down little cottage. There were only two rooms in it, one above the other. They went up the creaky old stairway to the second story. When they entered that room, Jim thought it was the poorest and saddest-looking place he had ever seen. There was no carpet on the floor; three rickety chairs, an old table and bed to match in one corner, was all the furniture. On the bed lay a poor old lady. Jim’s father sat down beside the bed and began to talk with her. Little Jim was quite surprised to hear how cheerfully she spoke, and sounded as if she were quite happy. But after a while, Jim, in his innocent, childish frankness, said: “Please, will you tell me what makes you so happy? You have to stay here all by yourself; you are sick and don’t have much to eat. What can make you so happy?”
“My dear boy,” replied the old lady, “It is true that I am alone in the world. Yes, and I am old and poor and not very well; yet the Lord takes care of me, and I am happy. I know that He loves me, and I love Him. I feel that He is here with me all the time, and this makes me happy. I was just thinking, when you came in, of that verse in the Bible in which the Lord Jesus says, ‘I will be a husband to the widow, and a father to the fatherless.’ I can’t tell you how much comfort that gives me.”
That dear old lady had found the secret of true happiness—she had Christ. O dear reader, have you?
Jesus, thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill;
Thy patient life to calm the soul,
Thy love its fear dispel.
ML 07/21/1968