"Oh, Daddy, will he bite?" cried Emmie, as the big brown man with the toothy smile and huge hat picked her up and carried her down the gangplank.
"No, my dear, he won't bite," smiled Daddy. "He is one of the people to whom we have come to tell the story of the Lord Jesus."
The brown man had not understood these English words, but he was surprised to have the frightened little girl in his arms suddenly smile as she gave him a hug and a kiss. For Emmie at that very moment had decided that if these strange new people were not going to harm her, then she was going to love them.
Emmie and her Daddy and Mother had just stepped from the boat that had brought them to the sunny land of Mexico, where there was no bread and butter for a hungry little girl, but plenty of bananas and corn meal. She had never seen a brown man before, so many things were new and strange. Daddy explained that they had come to live in this land to tell the people that the Lord Jesus loved them, and died for them that they might be cleansed from their sins in His precious blood, and then learn to love and serve Him.
Emmie was only six years old, but she soon learned the language and made many friends, for she was a happy little child, and really loved the Mexican people that lived about her.
Then a great sadness came to Emmie and her father. Her mother became sick, and the Lord Jesus took her home to heaven to be with Himself. Emmie was very lonely for Mother, and very sad so that she no longer sang her happy songs about Jesus, and did not even care to play, until Father gently explained that God had taken Mother to a wonderful land where she was very happy, and was waiting for them to come to be with her there. But until God called them to come, too, Mother wanted her little girl to serve the Lord Jesus and to tell others about Him and His love.
Then Emmie grew very eager to be a real missionary with her Daddy, and her first chance came soon.
One day her father came home without his horse, and with a bullet hole through his hat. What an exciting story he had to tell! He had been riding quietly along, intending to visit some Mexicans to tell them about the Lord Jesus, when suddenly-zing!! a bullet went right through his hat! The frightened horse bolted so quickly that he slid Daddy neatly off his back into the dust of the road, and away he went at a mad gallop.
Daddy ran quickly for a nearby clump of trees to hide, for he was quite sure they were bandits who had shot at him. Sure enough, peering from behind a pile of rocks he saw a man holding his gun ready to shoot again. As he slipped from tree to tree Daddy heard shouts, and knew there must be several of the bandits. Daddy prayed as he ran, and then, just a little way before him he saw a small hut.
Running as fast as he could, Father dashed to the hut. A small boy was sitting by the entrance in the sunshine. He had heard the shots, too, and knew that it must be bandits coming. He helped the missionary to hide under a pile of corn shucks in the corner without asking any questions, and then sat quietly in the doorway again.
"Say, Boy! Did a stranger come running by here?"
"I did not see anyone!" answered the boy.
The missionary waited almost breathlessly under the corn shucks until he could no longer hear voices. When even the clomp of horses' hoofs died away, he crawled out cautiously from his cover. The boy was still sitting quietly in the warm sunshine.
"How can I thank you for helping me, my boy?" the missionary asked.
"That was nothing, Senor!" smiled the boy. "I was glad to be able to help you escape from those bad men."
"I am sorry, though, that you lied to the men, in telling them that you did not see me. No matter how extreme the trouble we should not lie, for that is not pleasing to God."
"Oh, but I did not lie," the boy answered quickly. "You see, I did not see you-for I am blind."
Looking more closely at the boy's eyes which were turned his way, Emmie's father could see that there seemed to be a film over them.
It was growing late, and Emmie's father knew he must hurry home to Emmie before it grew dark. Not staying to talk any longer, he thanked the boy again and hurried home. But he could not forget the little blind boy that the Lord had used to save him from the bandits, and as he finished telling the story to Emmie she cried, "Oh, Daddy! Do take me to see that little boy, and let me take my music box to him! He can hear the songs even if he can't see, and we can tell him about the Lord Jesus!"
So a few days later after the run-away horse had returned, Daddy got the saddle out, and with Emmie sitting up in front of him, holding the precious music box, they rode away to visit the blind boy. They found him again sitting on his doorstep in the sun, and his mother was busy in the kitchen.
They kindly received Emmie and her father, though the mother apologized for their poor home, saying her husband had died, and she was scarcely able to make a living for herself and her son.
Pedro, the boy, was delighted with the music box! Though he could not see, he found he could operate it easily, and he and Emmie had a happy time listening to it together. Then while Father spoke to the mother about the Lord Jesus, Emmie told Pedro about God's love for him. Pedro had not heard this wonderful story before, and he listened carefully as Emmie quoted 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), "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."
Then they stopped to listen as they heard Emmie's father asking if a doctor had ever looked at Pedro's eyes.
"Oh, no!" the mother answered. "They would want too much money, and we are so poor. Anyway, it would likely do no good; the boy was born blind."
Emmie remembered the story in the ninth chapter of John in the Bible about the man who had been born blind, so she said, "Jesus can make him see! There was a man in the Bible who was born blind, too, and the Lord Jesus put clay on his eyes and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. He did, and he could see right away! Daddy, let's pray for Pedro!"
On another visit Father talked again to Pedro's mother. "I would really like very much to take Pedro to the big city to see a good doctor! Perhaps something can be done for him, at least we can try. It will not cost you anything, for I would like to do it for Pedro in return for his having saved my life when the bandits might have shot me. May I take him to a doctor?"
The mother finally said yes, and Pedro was taken away to a hospital in the city. Daddy and Emmie were praying that God would not only help Pedro to see, but that the eyes of his heart would be opened, too, and that he would accept the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
A good doctor operated upon Pedro's eyes, and then for a few weeks he lay with bandages over his eyes. Daddy and Emmie visited him often, and he loved to hear them tell about the wonderful Lord Jesus. One day he very simply took the Lord Jesus as his Savior as he realized that it was for his sins that He had died upon the cross!
Then came the day when the bandages were taken away! Quietly the nurses and doctor stood watching Pedro, and Daddy and Emmie were so excited they could scarcely breathe! Suddenly a look of wonder came over his face.
"Oh! I can see!" he cried, "Jesus has made me see!"
As they took Pedro home, what a joyful little boy he was! Over and over he would say, "Jesus made me see! I was blind, but now I see! I must love Him because He first loved me!"
Emmie was almost as happy as Pedro! It gave her such great joy to think that little Pedro who had saved her father's life, not only now could see, but could say that Jesus had saved him!