Letter To Our Children
by Pastor Joe | March 1, 2023 | Letters To Our Children
March 1, 2023
God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
Come to me, all you, who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
Hello friends!
There was a hospital Chaplain (someone who speaks and prays with people in hospital beds) who walked by the room of this particular man who had been in the hospital for a long time. What was curious to the chaplain, every time he walked past the man's room, lying in bed, the man would give the peace sign to the Chaplain.
The Chaplain eventually got used to it, so each time, he would usually smile and expect a smile in return. It went on for a while. But one particular day walking by his room, this time man said, “Hey".
The Chaplain looked at him and said, “Yes?”.
The man in the hospital bed said, "Can I have a word?” "Sure," the Chaplain said. He replied, “Well, I would just love to chat with you about, you know, why you wear that white thing on your neck? You know, I mean what you believe.”
The Chaplain said, "Sure, what would you like to know?" To which the gentleman replied, "Well, tell me everything." The Chaplain did. He gladly told him about Jesus. He told him the Gospel. He told him about grace, forgiveness, about the love of God, about the relationship you can have with God through Jesus Christ, and that you can pray to Him.
Immediately the man said, "Well, how do you pray to Him?" "It's pretty simple, actually.", the Chaplain said. "Well, how do you pray? “Tell me.” The man said.
The Chaplain said, “Well, (and at that moment, the chaplain got off his chair), that's your bed there. You are there, and there is a chair. Now imagine that Jesus is sitting in this chair, and He's just loving you permanently. He knows you, and you can talk to him. So, you can say what you like.” He concluded, “So what would you say?”
The man said “Probably that I'm pretty scared. I would tell him how very fragile I am. “What else,” said the Chaplain. “I would say that messed up my life really bad, and I'm sorry.”
The Chaplain replied, “Good that's honest, what else. The man was silent.
The Chaplain continued,
“Well, you can be in silence just remember Jesus is there, just keep talking, keep talking, you can listen if you like, but remember that you're loved, remember that He died for your sins, and remember that you can be free.”
The man replied, “Thank you, I can see why you're a chaplain.” The Chaplain got up and left.
He was there again a few days later, walking past his bedroom. This time it was empty. He spoke to the nurses there, wondering if they had moved the man into another room. They all said no.
One of the nurses then said, “I'm afraid he died two days after you were last here.”
The Chaplain replied, “Oh, ok, oh, this is sad.”
She replied, “Yeah, but you know when you left the last time, he was really happy. Actually, kind of bouncy in bed. He kept telling us what you told him about the chair and this Jesus thing.”
The Chaplain said, “Oh, that's good.”
The nurse said, "Yeah, he was like really overwhelmingly pleased about it all."
Thinking the conversation was over, the Chaplain started walking off, and the nurse shouted,
"Oh, by the way, one other thing. Before you go, you should probably know it's a bit strange to tell you this, but I'll tell you anyway. When we found him the morning he died, he was leaning out of his bed, his hips were on the bed, his chest was on the chair, and his arms were wrapped around the back of the chair. He died like that."
The Chaplain started weeping because he realized this man had understood everything. He got Christianity in a nutshell. He got the thing we can struggle with our whole life. He had understood that he was loved. He understood the reason why he exists was to love and be loved; and that he could rest his whole weight, his fragility, his brokenness, and his fears- all of it on this Jesus.
This story is true. Therefore, we can put our burden on Him, and He will sustain us because He loves us.
God bless this week. Keep yourself in God’s love.
Pastor Joe