I wish I had known...

It was Sunday afternoon. The dinner table was empty although just an hour before it was filled with family laughing, discussing the Sunday sermon and enjoying Sunday dinner. Everyone had retired to rest before the evening service and I was the lone person up and about sweeping the steps outside my parents’ front door. I can’t remember what the sermon was that day but I remember that I was happy and humming as I swept.

It was at this time that two teenage young men, one of whom I had known his entire life, walked by. “Good afternoon,” they called out.

“Good afternoon,” I responded then added, “Did you take time out to go to church today and give God thanks for keeping you through out last week?”

One of the young men stopped and talked to me for a minute and the other continued walking as if he hadn’t heard. The young man that stopped was not known to me. However he seemed interested in what I had to say and in the short time he stopped I told him about the importance of developing a relationship with God and taking time to give Him thanks for the gift of life.

I never saw the young man who continued walking again. A week later he and two others went missing during a boating trip. When I heard the news I felt as if I had been punched in the gut. I stood there shell shocked and then I cried.

I cried because of a young life that was gone too soon.

I cried because of the uncertainty, the not knowing whether he’d made it right with God.

I cried because if I knew that those words were going to be the last words I would ever speak to that young man I would have called him by name as he walked away and tried harder to have a conversation about God. However, I didn’t know. None of us know which opportunity will be the last opportunity we have to tell someone about Christ.

It’s been almost ten years since this happened and I still remember it vividly as if it happened yesterday. It is a reminder to me to take every opportunity to share Christ with others. For when I take my last breath on this Earth I want to know above all that I’ve pointed others to my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

Trusting Him,
~Bernadine~