The Loneliest Man in Heaven
The man rose up from the baptismal waters, the preacher’s hands supporting his shoulders as he broke the surface. He could feel his sin being washed away as the water fell from his skin and hair and the joy that he felt was incredible. As if a gigantic weight had been removed the man almost bounced up and out of the waters.
A smile was spreading across his face, and the preacher asked him if he had anything to say about this incredible moment. He started to speak but then just shook his head and kept his silence. This was his acceptance of the greatest gift. An acceptance of eternal life without ever voicing gratitude or acknowledging the gracious God that had given it to him. The same God who gave him a new life as a ‘new creation’.
After church that day, the man went home with his family. Having come from a family without a religious background, his wife and children were curious and asked him about his experience.
“What does your baptism do for you, what does it mean?” they asked. “Tell us about Jesus and what happened to you today!” Those and many other similar questions were asked of him but he answered only with short, terse snippets. Finally, they stopped asking.
The days passed quickly, and the only time he acknowledged or displayed his ‘new life’ was in Church on Sunday mornings. All other times it was business as usual. He never discussed Christ with anyone.
Ever.
One day at work, as he was walking to the breakroom a coworker of his suddenly collapsed. Our man ran to him and knelt down, he checked his pulse, and received nothing. No breathing either. He rolled the man fully onto his back and began CPR while giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation, and after a tense minute or two, the man suddenly took in a huge gulp of air and then settled back down. His face was a mask of intense pain. He looked like he was about to pass out again and our man just stared at him.
Another worker, seeing and understanding what was happening knelt down quickly and leaned down to the man’s ear and asked if he knew Christ. The man looked at him, eyes wide with fear and shook his head from side to side. Quickly and quietly the man walked him down the ‘Romans Road’ ending at the question “Do you wish to have the Lord Jesus come into your heart and life, to be your personal Lord and Savior?” This time the man’s head shook up and down emphatically. A look of total peace immediately appeared in the man’s eyes, his body relaxed and all the fear that was there just moments before was gone. His eyes focused on something beyond them and then he smiled as if he recognized an old friend.
And then he was gone.
Our man knew that his ‘doing nothing’ had been the wrong thing. He admired the swiftness to share Christ with which his co-worker had led the dying man from Hell to Heaven. Replaying the event in his mind, he continued to kneel there by the body until the EMT’s came to take him away.
His silence weighed heavily upon him. He knew he should have done more. He should have spoken of Christ.
But then again he thought, I am no preacher he rationalized.
As he watched the EMT’s prepare the body for transport, one of them looked over at our man and said, “Someone said that this man was ‘saved’ just before he died. They said that he met Jesus right here.” He looked directly at our man. His face was set in anticipation of the answer. But our man still did not respond he just stared back dumbly. “Please sir!” said the EMT, “Tell me about Christ if you know him! I see so much death in my work. Day in and day out, I see the terrible things that we as men do to one another. I am beginning to lose all hope! Is there no good in this world? Is there no God? Where is He?”
“Speak to me! Tell me please!” but the anguished cries of the EMT were answered with silence.
And so our man continued to live out his days. Never sharing his testimony. Never helping anyone find their way to our Savior. Never . . . sharing the gift that he had been so freely given all those years before.
Finally, after having a full life, our man got his reward. He closed his eyes to this life and stepped into Jesus’s arms and then opened his eyes in Heaven. And as he looked around at all the people meeting their friends and families separated by death, some of them early or untimely. They were meeting each other in joyful reunions. He looked around for those who would come forward to welcome him. And there were none.
Not even his wife and his children whom he had outlived. He looked at Jesus with questioning eyes and asked “Where are they?”
And the Lord responded, “Although you knew me and you knew the way and you knew that I was their only path to the Father you never shared it with them. Consequently, they are not here.”
And then our man woke up.
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