It was Helen’s first day in high school. She was a shy little girl, coming from a country home many miles away. The other girls seemed to know each other, and chattered busily, while Helen went quietly to her seat.
The English teacher smiled a welcome and gave the girls their first exercise to do. They must each write a letter to their new teacher, telling of their home life, their school days of the past, and their hopes and plans for the future. This letter was to be sealed at once and put away, and then read aloud on the day of their graduation, four years later.
Helen set willingly to her task of writing, for her lonely heart was full of childhood memories. The letter was duly sealed and put away when she finished. Soon she found new friends and new fun, and the loneliness wore away.
I do not think that Helen knew the Lord Jesus as her Saviour. I wish she did. She entered fully into the worldly wisdom of the school, and often the thought of that childish letter troubled her. She hated to have the girls know what a baby she was, and how backyard and old-fashioned her home life had been. If only she could tear up that dusty old letter, but it must come out some day and be read in public. Her cheeks burned. If only she had been wiser.
But you know, there is a heavenly record of your life, which you cannot alter. It is written, day by day, all through your childhood and youth and old age, by the unerring hand of God. When your record is done, it will remain unchanged, should you die in your sins, until you stand before the great white throne to be judged. “The Lord... will bring to light the hidden things of darkness.” 1 Cor. 4:55Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Corinthians 4:5). “He knoweth the secrets of the heart,” Psalm 44:2121Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. (Psalm 44:21), and He judges not only what you did, but why you did it. What will you do, dear reader, if unsaved, in that day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to His holy Word?
The day came when Helen stood at the top of the graduating class, and her sad little letter was read, as she knew it must be. But one letter lay on the desk that day, unclaimed. The writer was dead. Her record was with God, and I only hope she was saved before she was called away.
What of your record, dear reader? The day will surely come when you must meet God, the same God who loved the world, and gave His only begotten Son to die for sinners like you and me. He does not record our lives as a man would, who sins as we do. His perfect holiness cannot endure one sin, but His beloved Son has died to provide a perfect pardon for sin. He is ready now, to blot out “as a thick cloud, thy sins.” Isaiah 44:2222I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. (Isaiah 44:22). Is your life the record of an unforgiven sinner, or of a sinner saved by grace?
ML 08/22/1954