STORY OF A BOY WHO DOES NOT YET KNOW CHRIST

The Bible tells us that some people were selected by God to be part of His Elect, His Chosen Ones, before they were born. These folks are fortunate to be in this group and, if they decide to, will find Christ as their Lord and Savior at some time in their lives. We will not know if we are one of His elect, until we decide to follow Jesus and see our life being changed. Even if we are one of His elect, we still have to choose Christ, as He does not automatically become our personal savior. We have to learn about Christ from someone who already knows Him. Even the non-Elect can find Christ if they try.

This is the story of one boy who will make it to Christ’s Kingdom in spite of long held lack of interest. Or was the obstacle just concern about the unknown, or fear of any change to his life? The boy was born into a family who knew God but were not strong Christians. He was taken to church until his teens, but thereafter the family stopped attending. It was many years later that his father was dramatically brought back to Jesus. The father became dedicated to trying to bring the message of Christ to everyone including his family.

At first his father was shy about talking to people about their faith, but his confidence grew with time. He is a good writer so he started to write articles about his faith and what he found in the Bible and other sources that he thought would be helpful. He sent many articles to people he knows and to his family. The boy read these but never wanted to discuss them. His father kept the messages coming though. He did not know what effect they had on the boy, if any. With others in the family, faith was freely discussed.

One day something caused the boy to think about his life and the emptiness he felt, mostly not acknowledged before. He kept searching for things that might fill his life in a meaningful way. Eventually he began to see that the Lord had really changed his father and that the change seemed good. He wondered if he might like to experience this too.

But he had not wanted this before because he had concerns about it. He thought initially that it was all a figment of dad’s imagination, and that there really was no Christ. Then when he considered it further he worried that if he went that route he would have to change his lifestyle. He was afraid that Christ would not approve of how he spent his spare time, which was largely on entertainment from TV, music and the computer. He thought that he might have to start going to church, but church attendance is not a requirement, just a useful addition. His lifestyle was too precious to him to have it changed. He also worried that he had done things that would not be forgiven, but the Lord will forgive all our shortcomings if we ask. Lastly he thought that he had lots of time to decide.

Then the boy realized that his mother also spent much time watching TV and enjoyed movies and other entertainment, yet was a believer and dedicated to Christ. Could he continue to allocate much time to entertainment and still have time for God? If this were possible then he might be willing to give it a shot. His father believes that the boy is worthy to be in Heaven as he is honest, helpful and has never hurt another person. But no matter how good we are, we must still come to Jesus to be saved.

Christ wants His faithful ones to enjoy their lives. He puts in no roadblocks that require a drastic change in a person’s lifestyle. His father found this to be true, but also found that the desire to continue many of the time-consuming activities gradually diminished. Instead, other things that were even more interesting presented themselves. At no time did God ever try to make his father live a strict life of worship. As time passed, he found such a joy in communing with God that this became more interesting. Not only that, but God was a continual help. No matter what he was doing, he found that God would make the way easier if He was asked. So instead of regretting the change in his life that really was happening, he just loved it. It became so wonderful to talk to God at any time and get help, that prayer became as natural as conversation with a human friend. And God is our best friend if we let Him be a part of our life.

Of course the boy could not look into his dad’s mind and actually see how these experiences might also be interesting to him. At some point, we must have faith that what we don’t see is still real. If the boy could read his father’s mind and somehow “feel” his dad’s experiences, he would run to God. His father is having a most wonderful life in knowing God even this late in his life. He has told God that he believes he is now one of the luckiest persons on earth. He regrets all the years that he knew so little about God and nothing about Jesus. The “ride” with Jesus is so wonderful that he has been doing everything he knows to bring Christ’s message to others.

The father of the boy (who is now a man) also knows where he will spend eternity – with God, and this gives him much peace. No matter what happens on earth, he knows he will enjoy an eternity with God. Our life on this earth is only a blink of time compared to our total life in eternity. Our real selves, our soul and spirit, will live on forever. He hopes that many, many people will live with our Lord for all eternity. But the choice is ours to make while we are alive in this life. We must seek the Lord Jesus as our savior. If we don’t, by default we will end up with Satan forever in misery. We don’t have “forever” to decide, as any person’s life could end even today. Younger people tend to think that they will live forever in the sense that their life will go on and on. But we know that all humans die sometime. We must make our choice while we still can do it.

Will the boy come to Jesus? His father believes so but it is in the hands of Christ.