Randy and his family lived across the street. He was the kind of person who was successful at everything he did. He had no use for God and no time for Him either. However, his children came to a little hobby class that we had in our home. But one day Randy sold his house, and the family moved quite a long way into the country, where he built a large and very beautiful house on his grandfather’s farm.
One Friday night some years later, we went out to visit Randy and his family. As we rang the doorbell, we saw through the window a very strange but happy scene. Randy and his children were sitting around the kitchen table reading the Bible! With a big smile, Randy answered the door with a cheerful invitation, “Come in, brother!” Then he quickly gave us an unneeded explanation of the happy view we had seen through the window: “I got saved!” Later that evening in a quiet moment, he told me what had happened.
Randy was always successful and on top of every situation. But the Lord brought Randy to the end of himself. In his despair, he went up into the loft of the farm’s machine shed and sat down on a crate. He did two things then that he had never done before—he prayed and he cried: “God, help me!”
Through his tears, he looked down into a box of junk beside him and saw a frying pan, a coffee pot and a little children’s book. The little square book was the kind moms give their young children to look at, with lots of pictures and just a few words. (Randy showed me the book.)
When Randy opened the book, imagine his surprise when through his tears he read on the first page, “To Randy because Jesus loves you.” Randy said, “As I remember it, the book went like this: ‘This story began before there was a sun or moon or earth or stars. God had a Son, and He planned to send His Son to be the Savior of sinners just like you, so that you could be like His Son.’”
Randy didn’t need to give the Lord Jesus anything or ask Him for anything. He just needed to take his place as a guilty sinner before God and accept that Jesus had died for him on the cross. Soon all of Randy’s family was blessed, just as he was.
ML-06/17/2018