Sinners in need of a Savior.

When we had arrived to my home she stood in the entry-way and began pealing off the layers of cloths. Two coats, two sweaters, and a jacket revealed the tiny frame of who she was. Leaving her snow pants and boots on she looked around unsure of the next step. I stood in the kitchen down the hall and watched my daughter make sense of her, she eventually looked at me and walked forward.

I asked her what she wanted to eat. With no direction spoke, I walked to the pantry and began listing off the food items that lined the shelves. Macaroni & Cheese was given the go, and as I stood at the kitchen sink filling the pot with water I glanced over to the frail girl whose feet couldn't touch the floor from the kitchen bench where she sat.

I hadn't stopped praying since He turned my car around to go pick her up. Having felt unsure of what to say then, the same unsureness hung on my tongue as I mulled over what Jesus would say if He was standing in my spot. The silence made way for the understanding that my focus was not to be on what I said but on what I was to do, what I was in the process of doing. Picking up the box I tore off the top and dumped the noodles in the boiling water.

Between the time it took for me to prepare a box lunch and peel an orange, I learned that she use to sing in her high school choir. She use to write poetry, and her 2 year old son was the reason she lived. I learned about the joy prior to when life took a noise dive toward a hard cement floor.

At 21 she had reached the end of herself. In-between bites of food she reveled the depravity which had her by the throat. I listened and prayed.

What do I say to someone who is on the road which leads to eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Taylee, where were you prior to Me? You have traveled her road. While the sin was different, it too led you to the bottom.

Synonymously, I listened and remembered the condition I once was in. I heard her sin and saw mine as equal value. She did meth, I manipulated men. Her son was taken, I had an abortion. She has no money because she lost a job, I lost grip of financial stability due to materialistic greed. She has nothing, I had it all. Her sin is visible, mine was hidden. Her sin has resulted by way of sitting out in the snow begging for money, mine resulted in breaking off an engagement, quitting a cush job, moving back home with my parents, and sitting on a sofa for six months.

Once God had let me see the commonality of my once stone heart next to hers, He then pushed play on my muted tongue. And as the words flowed from my mouth, the tears poured out from her harsh thick black lined eyes.

Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

It doesn't matter what road God leads you on to the end of yourself. Be it one of religious elite, Hollywood glamor, drugs or booze, self-reliant agnostic, sexually sneaking adulteress, depression, stealing, or behind closed door gossip with your girl friends. All roads paved way by sin with a dead end.

Her nose had been up against the dead end sign for years. And as I grabbed her hands in mine I pulled her to its side, revealing that the road did not have to end here.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The road that leads to life is narrow, and only made possible by way of Jesus Christ.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

This story ends by way of me taking her back to where I found her. And as I watched her trudge through the snow towards the bushes where she had stashed her bike, I realized that the only way we will ever amount to anything of lasting value in this life is by first realizing that we are all more alike then we like to admit; all sinners in need of a Savior.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.