The Smile
Sunday the preacher preached on Peter denying Christ. The man
sitting in the front row named Tom, thought about this on his way
to work on Monday. He said: I’m a Christian and I wouldn’t deny
Christ. Then he thought more and realized that Peter had said the
same thing also. So the man decided to do his best not to deny
Jesus today.
First off one of his CO-workers said: “There is no God”.
Tom said, The next time you say that, please stand a little farther
away from me, so I don’t get hit by a bolt of lighting if God
decides to stick you down. The CO-worker said: I’m serious, if
there was a God, why would he let my mother wind up in a nursing
home the last 10 years suffering?
Tom thought - This is a really tough question and If I answer
wrong, I’m going to do more harm than good. So Tom said, I
don’t pretend to know all the answers to why things are the way
they are, but I know God has reasons for everything that happens.
The man said, I was at the nursing home visiting my mother and
there is no way, if there was a God, he wouldn’t let people suffer
and linger on like that. Tom said, I’m sure each of those people are
there for different reasons.
The CO-worker said, I can’t see it myself, sure some are there to
suffer for what they did. I’m talking about the one’s who for all
their life, they tried to help people and called themself Christians.
Why are they there? My mother went to church all her life and
never said or done the first thing bad to any body. Why is she
there?
The CO-worker said: My mother lays there, unable to speak, can’t
move, messes on herself like a baby. Is this how a God would treat
someone that believes in him and has followed him all of their life?
If there was a God, he would have done took her to Heaven and
not have left her there to suffer for the last ten years in a bed and in
that kind of a condition.
Tom said, This may not be the right answer, and like I said before,
I don’t claim to know the will of God, but think about this if you
will. What would your mother do, if God gave her a choice. If
God said: You can go to Heaven now or you can lay in a bed and
suffer for 10 or 20 years on a slim chance that your son might,
through your suffering, be saved from Hell? Do you think your
mother would say: “OK, I’ll do that” or would she say: “Take me
on and forget about him”?
Tom said: I’m sure your mother would say: Yes, yes a hundred
times yes, I’ll take the chance and suffer the years no matter how
small the chance.
The CO-worker dashed off to the bathroom to hide his tears. He
went into the stall and closed the door. He could hear his mother’s
voice saying those same words over and over in his ears. The mans
eyes were opened to the truth. Satan had kept this hid from him all
these long years because no one had spoke up. In a way they too
had denied Christ in this way.
The man returned and asked that Tom pray with him, and he did
pray with him, and ask for forgiveness and for salvation. When
they had finished praying, the man recieved the news that him
mother had just passed on peacefully with a smile on her face.
Tom said: Now she will always smile, she is in heaven now. The
CO-worker said: There is a God and my mother can see his Smile!
Written By: Johnny Lee Hall
April 23, 2000
