A Chinese Christian farmer was on his way home from the market. The road which led to his little village was narrow and lonesome, but that did not trouble him. His heart was overflowing with praise for the goodness and loving-kindness of his God. Then he noticed that one of his straw sandals was coming off, so he sat down to mend it.
Just then a man from the other direction came near and looked at him, and said, “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the only true God?” The farmer looked up astonished and said, “O yes, I know Him well.” The stranger said, “Can you tell me about Him, for I have been seeking Him for a long time?” “Sit down here and I will do so,” he said. “But why did you ask me, when you do not know me?”
The stranger told how he had heard about the Lord Jesus, and had seen some Christians. He was dissatisfied with the idol worship, but did not know how to find the true God. The very night before he had been in great distress of soul, and he prayed to God for the first time, asking Him to send him someone who could help him. In the night the Lord spoke to him in a dream, telling him to go the next day towards evening to the road which leads to a certain little village. On that road the Lord showed him that he would find a man mending his straw sandal. He said, “You ask him and he will help you.”
The Christian farmer was very touched by this incident and thought it was just like the eunuch in Acts 8. For hours the two men sat by the roadside, and when they separated, both went happily on their way, the one, because the Lord had used him to show the way of salvation to a longing soul, the other because the Saviour of sinners was his very own Saviour.
ML 01/17/1954