Last minute conversions
Robert MORTON
The Life of Jesus; read today: "…you will be with me in Paradise."; Luke 23:43
The third of the recorded words that Christ spoke from the cross.
NET: Luke 23:43. And Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, today
you will be with me in paradise."
My daughter asked me a few years ago if she would see grandpa in
heaven as she never knew him. He died many years before she was born.
I paused and thought before I said anything. My dad, if he had
accepted Jesus certainly did not live the life of a Christian. He was
an alcoholic who was only sober when he was in the hospital, and
sometimes I wondered if he was then. On his last visit they told him
he would die if he kept drinking, and he said I can not give up living
to live. He died two weeks later, in his recliner, a drink by his
side.
Maybe somewhere deep inside, something that someone said came back to
him that night and caused him to turn to Jesus and ask for
forgiveness. I do not know. I only know that if he did, then like the
thief on the cross, he would see Jesus in paradise that day. I do not
put down death bed conversions, Jesus died for people who put it off
to the end just like He did for me. I can only think about how much
richer and fuller both his life and my children’s lives would be if
Grandpa was still alive today.
So my answer to her was I do not know. I can only hope that he is.
Read for next time: Darkness from 6th to 9th hour; Matthew 27:45; Mark
15:33; Luke 23:44-45
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