The Best Sermon

The best sermon I’ve heard in a long time came from an unlikely place. I’ve told you all about my young friend with Cancer, the one I’ve been crocheting all the hats for over the summer. She turned eight just about a week after her Leukemia diagnosis and she’s now entered the really difficult phase of treatment. She told her Papaw on the way to church a few weeks ago that she wanted to be saved but she couldn’t because she wasn’t allowed to get in the creek with her port so she couldn’t be baptized. He explained to her that she could be saved any time she wanted and they would figure out baptism later. She gave her life to Jesus as soon as she got to church that day.

Last Sunday we got word that she had a fever. Sickness has been going around for a while and everyone seems to have some little bug but for her it’s very dangerous. She went to the local hospital and they immediately put her in an ambulance on a trip five hours away to her Cancer doctors for specialized care. Her grandpa is our preacher and he reported to us during service that she was about halfway there in the ambulance, but she wanted him to tell the church something for her. She said, “I want them to know that I’m safe in Jesus arms.” I’m not sure what prompted her to want to let us all know that but there were a lot of silent tears shed after that and I think the church would agree with me when I say that had the service ended right there it would have been complete. It gave us all a lot to think about and made us all thankful to be safe in Jesus arms.

I think in a way we’re all called to preach. It doesn’t matter if you’re a grandpa or a story writer or a kid with Leukemia, we can all share a sermon once in a while, and tell people something they need to hear.