Tom was a young orphan boy who lived in East London with an old lady he called ‘Granny’. He couldn’t walk without the aid of crutches but his room was on the top floor of a three-storey block. This meant he was confined to his small room, with very little chance of any visitors. He had nothing to do, nothing to read and nothing to watch.
One day his one and only friend, Harry, came to see him but this was to be his last visit because he was moving up north to get a job. He brought Tom a present – a new, shining coin. There was no way Tom was going to get out to the shops to spend it, so he said to Tom, “will you go to the shops and buy me a Bible?” Harry wasn’t best pleased that his money was going to be wasted, as he thought. Tom said, “it would remind me of the stories we heard when we went to Sunday School.”
Off went Harry and eventually he returned with a new Bible which he gave to Tom. Once Harry had gone, Tom was now on his own, apart from when he saw his ‘granny’ when she brought him his meals.
He started to read his new Bible. He remembered some of the things he read but much of it was new. He kept on reading it until he came to the conclusion that he needed to make a commitment to the Lord Jesus as His Saviour and friend. Once he had done that, he thought about how he could tell other people. He managed to get Granny to bring up some paper and pencils. He looked out of his window to the street below and decided to write Bible verses on pieces of paper, make them into a paper aeroplanes and ‘fly’ them down to the street below where lots of people were walking along the pavement.
One day Tom heard someone coming up the stairs. The door opened and in came this very smartly dressed man who asked Tom if he was responsible for these bits of paper with Bible verses on them. “Yes, sir,” said Tom, “Why?” The man said, “because one of them landed in my hat so I read what it said.” “Which verse would that be?” asked Tom. The man read the verse – ‘Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming when no man can work.” ‘ The man went on to explain that he became a Christian when he was a young boy but he had forgotten all about it because he was a successful business man and lived out in the country in a large house. He had a lovely family. He forgot all about God until, as he said, “this verse fell into my hat and I realised that, although God hadn’t forgotten me, I had forgotten him.”
He went back home, talked to his neighbours and they set up a church in his village. His son became a Christian and eventually went out to Africa as a missionary. One day he received a parcel from England. Inside was Tom’s Bible and a letter to say that Tom had died but he wanted his Bible to go to the man’s son in Africa. As the son read the letter, he opened Tom’s Bible and inside the front page he read what Tom had written. It said,
‘I hope this Book becomes as great a friend to someone else as it has been to me.’
What a lesson from a disabled boy. As the old chorus says, ‘The best book to read is the Bible, it will help you on your way, Oh, the best book to read is the Bible.’
Until the next time, I hope you will begin to discover the truth of the Bible and the effectiveness of the Bible in your life.
The Bible and Me 