It was a warm summer evening and Mr. Smith felt an urge to take a quiet walk before turning in for the night. Down the road he met Mr. Jones, a neighbor, who was also out for a walk in the moonlight.
“Good evening, Mr. Jones,” said Mr. Smith warmly.
“Good evening,” returned the old man, and they both stopped to chat.
Now Mr. Smith was a Christian; he loved his Saviour, and he loved to point out to others the way to heaven. So after they had talked about the lovely weather, Mr. Smith brought the conversation around to the more important and eternal things. He asked Mr. Jones if he knew the Lord and was on the road to heaven.
“That’s the very thing that has been so much on my mind of late,” confessed Mr. Jones. He wanted to come to Jesus and be saved, but he didn’t know how.
“Mr. Jones,” said his friend, “do you remember when you were just a little fellow, how you took your first step, how your mother set you alone upright in the middle of the floor, and kneeling down several feet away with her arms outstretched, she said, ‘Now come, Johnnie!’ "
Old Mr. Jones replied that he was too young to remember, but he believed that’s about how it went. So Mr. Smith went on: “For a few moments you stood there on your little feet, wobbly and afraid, but your Mother encouraged you sang, ‘Come, Johnnie, come to Mommie.’ Then suddenly you stepped out and the next moment you were safe in Mother’s arms. Now wasn’t that it?”
The dear old man was deeply impressed. The memory of childhood days brought tears to his eyes. Was the way of salvation as simple as that? Could one as old as he come to Jesus in the simplicity of a little child? Yes, Jesus had died to put his sins away, and now He called him to come and trust Him as his Saviour. Has He not said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37).
He saw it all so clearly now. That night on the side of the road, out under the moon and the starlit sky, old Mr. Jones took that step of faith. He came to Jesus and found himself in those everlasting arms of love that would never let him go.
ML-02/17/1980