PROVIDENCE

"I saw a young man and asked him what work he was doing for his Savior.

'What has He done for me that I must do something for Him?' he said.

'Has He not shed His blood, given His Life for you?' I said.

'Stay,' said he, 'was that only for me? He gave His Life for all. What has He done for me in particular that I should serve Him?'

After some months he became seriously ill and was on his death-bed. Then he was in the spirit and saw a vision. His room was covered with pictures portraying different events in his life.

In one he is seen falling down as a child from a balcony up stairs. As he is falling down, a Man receives him in His arms and lets him down gently; on His hands are the scars of nails.

In another picture he slips from a rock and thinks he would certainly die. Then, too, a Man rescued him. On His hands he sees scars.

In another picture he steps on a snake but One holds the snake so that it does not bite him. On His hands are also scars.

Then when in the privacy of a room he is sinning. He appears before him and, showing him His wounds, plead with him not to sin.

As he saw all these pictures, He came and stood near him and said: 'Though I have done all this for you, you thought that I had not done anything for you. You are going to die now. If you die you are sure to enter eternal hell. But this time also I shall save you from death. Go and proclaim to every one the great things which the Lord has done for you.' So when he got well he became a servant of God.

When I saw him again he told me, with great anguish : ' In my ignorance I thought that God had done nothing for me. When on different occasions I escaped calamities my parents and I thought that they were due either to good luck or chance. But now I know that it is the Savior who has promised to be with us to the end of the world who is with me every day of my life and protects me from all dangers.' "

- Sadhu Sundar Singh

Taken from the book "The Message of Sadhu Sundar Singh" by B. H. Streeter and A. J. Appasamy