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A young couple was deliriouly happy when a beautiful little girl was born. This young couple was unsaved, in fact they had somehow grown to hate anything and everything that had anything to with God, and his son Jesus Christ.
Instead of doing as they should, and presenting the baby to the Lord for his blessing, they made a vow that the little girl, whom we shall call Melinda, was never to be allowed exposure to anything that had anything to do with Christianity.
Throughout her young girlhood she wan't allowed to go to Sunday School. If a preacher or Soul Winners from a local church visited their home, Melinda was sent to her room before the visitors were let in.
Melinda's parents and grandparents were well-to-do; and she had more toys and dolls than she could keep up with, and ate only the best of foods and wore the very best clothing money could buy.
Her parents made sure of her secular and cultural training. She studied piano, voice, and ballet with the best teachers and instructors money could afford, but her parents were doing a very good job of keeping her away from learning anything about the Lord.
One day Melinda's mother was baking her husband a birthday cake, and she discovered that she lacked a certain ingredient. She called her beautiful nine-year old daughter and gave her some money and sent her to the store to purchase the ingredient.
Her orders were that the girl should go straight down the street to the store, purchase the article, and come straight home.
Melinda, glad to be going out in the sunny spring day, skipped down the street, went into the store and purchased the article, and started back home. Melinda decided it might be fun to take a different route home, so she turned left at an intersection and walked up a back street.
She knew it would intersect a little farther up with the street that would lead her home, so no harm would come of it....
As she walked along, she began to hear some pretty singing and music. The farther she walked, the louder it became. Finally, she saw that the singing and music was coming from a big building just across the street from her.
Melinda loved music and singing, and she possessed the natural curiosity of a nine year old, so she crossed the street and entered the building.
Though she didn't know it, this was a mission house, and inside was a goodly number of down-and-outers: a cross section of the folks from the lower echelon of society; but many seated there had experienced the regenerating power of receiving Jesus Christ into their lives.
Some were there just fulfilling their obligation for having been given breakfast and perhaps some article of clothing.
As Melinda shyly entered, they looked back and smiled at the beautiful little girl. She sat down in the back, thinking she would stay just a little while and listen to the group on the podium singing such a beautiful song, one she had never heard before.
The group finished their song, and a pleasant face gentleman came to the podium and welcomed the assemblage. After a word of prayer, he began to preach.
Melinda knew she should get up and hurry on home, but something seemed to hold her to her seat.
The preacher was talking about who Jesus is and the many compassionate miracles he performed, and finally describing his arrest, trial and cruel treatment by the Roman soldiers and King Herod Antipas' guards; and finally his crucifixion.
"At that very time of year when lambs were being sacrificed for a covering for sin, Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God; not to cover our sins, but to take them away. Jesus had never committed a sin as we have, but he took all our sins to the Cross, and was nailed there: shedding his precious blood to cleanse us from all sin and make us ready to go to Heaven."
The missionay preached on about why it was necessary for Christ to come down to earth and give his life on Calvery's cross to pay our sin debt.
The tears flowed from Melinda's beautiful hazel eyes. The singing group came back to the podium to join the missionay, the piano started up, and they began to sing "There's Room At The Cross For You". |
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