Love Broke His Heart

George W. Truett, pastor of First Baptist in Dallas from 1897 until his death in 1944, conducted a mission Sunday School in the town where he lived prior to his Dallas pastorate. One 10 year old boy in that Sunday School was accidentally shot by a neighbor’s boy. It was serious. Two doctors arrived to help the lad but they concluded that there was little hope of saving his life. The father was in his usual drunken stupor and was of no help. The next day George Truett returned to the home and found the boy still alive and the father sober but in tears.

“Son, you’ll soon get well,” the father sobbed.

The child feebly whispered, “No, papa, I won’t be getting well.”

“You’ll get well and I’ll become a good father,” the man insisted.

Between gasps for breath the child murmured, “When I am gone, papa, I want you to remember that I loved you even if you did get drunk and angry.”

The boy died. But what the scoldings and criticisms of the neighbors over the years had not achieved, this son’s declaration of love did. It broke the father’s heart. That was enough to cause him to turn to the Lord and keep his promise of a drastic lifestyle change.

There’s hope on the sunny side for a really happy New Year,

Henry Wiebe