It was a perfect day for the Sunday school picnic. The sun was shining brightly as a group of children came running to be the first children to the meeting room. They did not expect the news they heard. “I’m sorry,” we told them, “there will be no picnic today. One of your classmates, Dean Olivares, died on Thursday, and his funeral is today.”
It was a more serious group of children that went back home. A picnic had been planned “Lord willing,” and the Lord had changed their plans suddenly. We knew that Dean’s heart was not as healthy as the other children’s. He ran out of breath more quickly, but who expects a six-year-old to die?
Dean had been in my Sunday school class for about a year. He told me that he had asked the Lord Jesus Christ to be his Saviour, and that his sins were washed away. He loved to stand up in Sunday school and say the verse from the Sunday school paper, and he listened well to the stories we told. Once he went with his mother, who also loves the Lord Jesus, to the park to pass out tracts and tell people, “Jesus loves you.” When he was in the hospital, he liked his mother to read the Bible to him and sing hymns.
Thursday morning his mother called me from the hospital and asked me to come as fast as I could, because she was afraid Dean was dying. When I arrived she was praying for her son and placing him in God’s loving hands. Dean was fighting for every breath, and it was not long before his tired little heart gave up, and he went to be with the Lord Jesus. The 16 doctors and nurses who quickly came into the hospital room could not hold him back. “And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up.” 1 Kings 17:1919And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. (1 Kings 17:19). Dean was in heaven with his Saviour.
That Saturday some of the children who planned to spend the day picnicking and playing games, found themselves instead at the graveside of a friend. There everyone was reminded to be sure they were ready to meet God. No one goes to heaven because they are good. The only way to heaven is to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31). Then “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7). Many of those who were there were not ready to die, yet no one knew when his turn would come. One of Dean’s friends stood beside the open grave and said, “I know I should be saved, but I’m not yet.”
Are you ready to die? Dean was only six years old. We thank God that Dean knew the Lord Jesus Christ as his own Saviour. If he had not accepted the Lord Jesus, his last chance would be gone, and he would be in everlasting darkness today. Dean will never read the Sunday school paper again. You are reading it today, and you still have the opportunity to believe. Are you saying, like Dean’s friend, “I know I should be saved, but not yet,” or will you decide today for the Lord Jesus Christ?
ML-04/10/1983