You Are the Light of the World
“You Are the Light of the World.”
Matthew 5:14
As I walked past the Emergency Room entrance on a cold winter morning, the door burst open and a distraught young woman stepped out. With a cigarette in hand and lifted in the “ready position” for a light, she yelled, “Hey, lady! Do you have a light?” Her urgent plea for “a light” felt more like a desperate cry for help. The anxious look on her face and visible distress in her eyes told the story for her. Life had been hard, and she needed relief.
I responded, “I don’t have a light, but I have Jesus!”
As if she didn’t hear my reply, she asked again while quickly and intently walking toward me, “Do you have a light?”
I answered again with a smile, “No, but I have Jesus. Do you have Jesus?” I sensed an urgency to get straight to the point. What she really needed was the Light, not just a light! I listened as she described her rough night in the hospital, and then the opportunity came to ask her directly if she was ready to receive Jesus as her Lord.
Again, perceiving the conversation needed to keep moving, I led her in a simple prayer to receive Jesus as the Lord of her life. Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The cab she was evidently waiting for pulled up almost immediately after we concluded the prayer. I asked her name so I could keep her in my prayers, and she made her way to the awaiting sedan. Before disappearing into the cab, she yelled loudly, “Thank you! Amen!” I waved while rejoicing in what had just happened, thanking God for the divine moment we just shared.
An ariel view of the intersection of our lives would have shown the cab making its way to the hospital entrance with minutes to spare—when she burst out of the Emergency Room at our initial connection. Clearly this was a divine appointment orchestrated by God. She was so ready, and so happy to take this vital step which ensured Heaven will be her home for eternity, and she won’t have to walk this earth feeling so desperate to get through the moment. From here forward, God will be her Peace, her Strength, her Help.
Thank God for the honor of a few minutes with a young lady who was ready to receive Jesus when she thought she just needed “a light.” Glory to God! John 4:35 declares the fields are “already white for harvest!” Let’s reap!
By: Ellen Redmond