Aunt Annie had lain in bed for years. There was a scent of springtime coming in her open window, and a branch of beautiful dogwood blossoms by her bedside. Little Joan had brought them. She loved to share everything with dear old Aunt Annie.
“Do you know,” said the old lady, as she looked from the flowers to her bright little visitor, “I think you are like a bit of springtime yourself.”
“Why Aunt Annie, I’m a little girl.”
“Yes, Joanie, but you’re pink and white, and growing fast, just like flowers in spring. I suppose I am like autumn,” she added.
Joan stroked the thin old hand. “Why are you like autumn, Aunt Annie?”
“Because I am wrinkled and old and weak, like the flowers when they are dying in the fall. What comes after autumn, Joanie?”
“Winter,” said Joan. “And then the flowers are all dead. Is that what comes next for you?” she added, with a troubled look into the old lady’s face.
Aunt Annie’s lips smiled, and her eyes smiled too, “Yes, dear, if the Lord doesn’t come, death comes next. Then I am going to live with the Lord Jesus.” Aunt Annie was lost in thought for a moment, when the little girl asked, “Is Mommy springtime, too?”
“I think Mommy is summertime, when the flowers are in full bloom. But you know, Joan, some flowers die in the spring, and some in the autumn.”
Joan looked up into the dear old face. “It doesn’t make you sad,” she said.
“It does when I think of those who are not going to live with the Lord Jesus. But I’m glad to be able to invite them to come, and I long to go myself.”
“You know,” added the old lady, turning again to the lovely blossoms, “nothing ever dies in heaven, and yet it’s only through death that we can go there at all—through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died that we might live. He died and rose again, and now my place is with Him, where there is no more death.”
Boys and girls, are you coming with us to the land where there is no more death, because Jesus died? If you are without Christ, you have certain death before you, and then the second death which is the lake of fire. If you. will have Christ as your Saviour, then you will have eternal life now.
“VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, HE THAT HEARETH MY WORD, AND BELIEVETH ON HIM THAT SENT ME, HATH EVERLASTING LIFE.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
ML 04/01/1951