Memory Verse: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
Mr. Dale was a grown man. You would never think he’d be interested in dolls. He didn’t know it either. But it was “City Pick-up Day.” At least once a year people could throw out trash from their basements, their attics, their yards or from anywhere. The people would pile this junk near the curb and big city dump trucks would pick it up. The trucks carried away the spoiled, worn-out, useless things and took them to the city dump.
My, what a lot of no-good things there were: pieces of old rotten wood, broken chairs, torn and worn-out mattresses, old rugs, torn window shades and curtains, and all kinds of dirty, broken things!
Mr. Dale was driving to work the morning of “City Pick-up Day.” As he looked at all the junk along the curbs he suddenly saw a face looking out of one of these piles. It was a dirty face with a mass of tangled, matted hair. It was a doll!
Suddenly Mr. Dale thought of his own daughter when she had been little. She was going to college now studying to be a nurse. But when she was a little girl, she just loved dolls.
And here looking at Mr. Dale with sad, round eyes, was something that once had been a lovely doll. She could be cleaned up and dressed with new clothes. He was sure some little girl would be happy to have her.
So Mr. Dale stopped the car and backed up. He pulled the doll out of the junk pile and put her in the car. Then off he went to work.
That night when he arrived home Mr. Dale showed the doll to his wife.
“Poor thing!” Mrs. Dale exclaimed. “She’s a mess. But she could be beautiful!”
Yes, she was really dirty! Her hair was a mess! Her 29-inch body hadn’t been washed for a very long time.
But it wasn’t long before the dolly was getting a good scrubbing and a shampoo. After she was cleaned up Mrs. Dale made her some new clothes. How pretty she was now! Then they had to decide what to do with her.
“I think my Cousin Marian would like to have her,” said Mrs. Dale. Marian was a lady who lived thirty-five miles away. She had many little friends. These young friends came very often to Cousin Marian’s house to hear stories about the Lord Jesus. They liked to hold something while they listened. How happy they would be to have this beautiful, clean, just-like-new dolly to love and hold!
So that’s just what happened. The doll was named Barbara, which was Mrs. Dale’s first name, because she had helped to make her so beautiful.
Now the little girls take turns holding the doll when they listen to a story. Cousin Marian never forgets to tell them how Barbara was once a poor, dirty, ruined doll going to the trash dump. But Mr. Dale found her and rescued her. And that’s just what the Lord Jesus does for us. Just as Mr. Dale found Barbara, the doll, and saved her, the Lord Jesus rescues boys and girls and saves them from sin and destruction. He washes away their sins in His own precious blood, and dresses them in His own spotless loveliness. And then He gives them His own name. Everyone who bongs to the Lord Jesus Christ is called a Christian—and that means a “Christ One.”
Do you belong to Him? Are you a Christ One?
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:6-9.
ML-08/10/1980