Little Jimmie, just ten years la of age, was very ill, and tossed wearily upon his bed. A glance at his pale little face and wasted frame showed only too well that he was not long for this world. His father had come home from work, and was sitting sorrowfully watching his little son, the tears rolling down his face.
It was a calm summer’s evening, and the little sufferer waking from an uneasy slumber, raised himself in bed and said, “Daddy, I’m going to Jesus very soon; I won’t have any pain there.”
“Yes, Jimmie,” replied his father, “you’ll be happy there, but we shall be sad without you.”
“But won’t we all be happy when we meet in heaven?” asked Jimmie. “Daddy, I want you to promise you’ll meet me there.”
Jimmie’s father was an honest and hard-working man, but he was not a Christian, and the request of his dying boy filled his mind with a sense of his own unfitness for heaven, so that he could only reply, “I’ll try.”
The boy shook his head, saying, “Father, I want you to meet me in heaven; you must say ‘I WILL’.”
Subdued by the boy’s earnestness, the strong man said, “Don’t worry, dear Jimmie, I WILL MEET YOU IN HEAVEN.”
A look of satisfaction then settled on the face of the little sufferer, who then lay back in bed again and dropped. off to sleep. However, as the evening twilight faded into night, Jimmie’s spirit took its flight to that better world, where there is no suffering nor pain, but all is peace and joy in the Saviour’s presence.
As the father paced the room he groaned within himself: “How can I ever meet my boy in heaven, such a sinner as I am? And yet I have promised to meet him there. How can I?”
He went to work and all day long the recollection of his promise haunted him wherever he went, until he cried, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer came, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).
“So then,” he thought, “the power I need is not in myself, but in the Lord.” He began looking himself for comfort and help in the Bible, and came across the verse, “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6).
“Lord,” he prayed, “help me to trust in Thee who died for the ungodly, like me.” And the Lord, who had been seeking the wandering sheep, answered the cry of faith and sent the repentant one such a feeling of peace and joy, that the father knew he was saved. Now he had a hope beyond this life, and he went on his way rejoicing.
ML 12/29/1968