A Chinese boy went one day to a nearby town, and while there he bought a small gift to take home to a friend. As he was traveling home he thought he would look at his purchase. It had been wrapped in a piece of paper with printing on it.
The boy had learned to read, so he smoothed out the torn paper and soon was intently reading the Chinese characters. It was a double page from a Chinese New Testament, and contained part of the Gospel of John.
The wonderful words of John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16), so familiar to us, were quite new to him. Over and over again he read them: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Before he reached home he knew this verse, and many others from the torn pages by heart. It was the most wonderful story he had ever heard, and he longed to know more. He treasured those two pages, always hoping he would one day possess the whole Book from which they came.
And he was not disappointed, though he had to wait a long time. One day a Christian colporteur came to the village where the boy lived, selling books. Now was his chance to see if he could get the book he longed for. Eagerly he pressed through the crowd to the colporteur’s stall, and holding up his two tattered pages he said, “Have you this book?”
The colporteur at once produced a New Testament in Chinese, and finding the third chapter of John, he showed it to the boy. It was bought at once, and the Christian was thrilled to explain to the boy the story of God’s love in the gift of Jesus. God’s Word had gone before and prepared him for the message.
He later became a missionary to his own people, and he delights to tell how the light of the gospel came to him. He often says, “I purchased a gift, but through that gift there came to me the greatest of all — eternal life through faith in Christ’s redeeming blood.”
Has our reader ever yet accepted God’s gift?
ML 12/06/1959