Emily and Her Drunken Father

By Harold Smith

Boys and Girls, our story today is about a little girl named Emily. Little Emily was ten years old and was coming home from Sunday School, walking very slowly this particular day. She had sort of a heavy heart just thinking about going back to the miserable home where she lived. All the sunshine of her life was left behind at the Sunday School and now, she was going home to a dark, dismal home where she had a daddy that was a drunkard, a mother that was very sick, baby sisters and brothers that were hungry and who had no clothes to wear. It was a terrible, wretched home in which Emily lived. Well, this particular Sunday, Emily came home and found her father sitting by the fire in silence. It was a wonder that he was sober. She touched him lightly on the shoulder and said, "Daddy...". "Well..." he said gruffly, "Shall I sing to you? We sang such a sweet hymn today in Sunday School and I am so fond of it I'd like to sing it to you!" "If you'd like", the father replied. His face did soften a little bit, after all, she was his oldest child, sort of his "little pet". He knew she was a brave little girl and had helped her poor sick mother a lot. Degraded as he was, he really did love his wife and children to some degree, but he was cursed by the awful drink that he couldn't seem to free himself from. Well, Emily started to sing and these were the words to the song: "If I come to Jesus he will make me glad. He will give me pleasure when my heart is sad. If I come to Jesus, happy I shall be. He is gently calling little ones like me." Emily sang the first verse and then said gently, "Daddy, wouldn't you like the Lord Jesus to call you too?" "Call me??", he said. "No dear Emily, the Lord Jesus wouldn't call a wicked drunk like me. He might call a good little girl like you, but not a bad man like me." "But daddy, the Lord Jesus came into the world to die for wicked sinners and bad people!" And she pulled a little card out and said, "Read this: 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' See?", Emily said, "Do you see the "whosoever' daddy? Who does that mean?" "Well,that means anybody." "Does it mean YOU daddy?" "Oh yes, well, I suppose it does mean me." And the father thought for the first time in his life, "God loves ME! And Christ died for ME! And that means I CAN be saved!" And right then and there, that ole wicked, sinful, drunken man trusted the Lord Jesus and he was SAVED! And he did more than just trust Jesus as his Saviour why, he LIVED his life everyday thereafter in such a way as to "prove' that he was saved! How about you today boys and girls? Do you have a bad situation at home? Are your parents saved? Why not look beyond the bad and see the good that Jesus could do for you and for your family today! God still loves and saves "WHOSOEVER" will come to Him!