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WHISPERS FROM HEAVEN

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Author Nancy Bauer, Washington

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BILLY’S THANKSGIVING GUEST

 

  “He’s coming for Thanksgiving dinner!” Billy screamed with glee.

   After composing herself from the sudden scream, Billy’s mom asked, “Who’s coming for Thanksgiving dinner…and why you aren’t in bed?”

   “JESUS IS COMING! He told me so! He says to ask and we will get what we ask…so I asked Him. You said we could invite someone, right mom?”

  “Yes, Billy,” Mom nodded as she took his hand and steered him back to his room. “I did say that. How do you know He will come?”

  “Because, mom, it says in the Bible that when we ask in Jesus’ name, He will do what we ask. I asked Him tonight when I said my bedtime prayers. I said, ‘Jesus, I am using Your name…JESUS!...mom said we could ask someone to dinner and we could ask someone who is hungry or lonely. You said You wouldn’t drink until You saw us again. I figure You are pretty thirsty AND hungry by now. So will You come to our Thanksgiving dinner? I will make You my special drink of juice and kool-aid and I will make You a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I make them REAL good. Mom makes turkey, but I like peanut butter and jelly BETTER! So will You come….P-L-E-A-S-E?’”

 

   Billy wrinkled up his nose, squeezed his eyes tight and folded his hands in front of his chest as if in prayer to demonstrate how he had prayed.

   “See mom,” Billy said. “Now He HAS to come!”

   “I see,” Mom said as she pulled the covers back and helped Billy into bed again. “But did you hear Him say ‘yes’ or do you just THINK He’ll come?”

   “I KNOW He’ll come, mom…I have FAITH!”

 

  The next day, was Thanksgiving.

  Billy woke up early…ON PURPOSE. He went straight to work cleaning his room, polishing his church shoes and taking a bath.

   “Good morning, son. What have you been doing to make all that racket up stairs?” Billy’s dad said watching as Billy sat at the breakfast table.

   “I’m getting ready for Jesus. He’s coming for dinner, you know.”

   “So I’ve heard.” Dad said, winking at Mom.

   “Yah, and I’m getting ready for Him. You and Mom better get ready, too.”

   “We’ll be ready!” Dad said. “Mom’s got the turkey in the oven now.”

   “OH! Then I’d better get Jesus’ special drink made so it can be cold. He’ll be VERY thirsty. He hasn’t drank in a LONNNNGGGG time, you know.”

 

    Three hours later, Aunt Pam and Uncle Jerry arrived, along with Grandma and Grandpa and Cousins Darlene and Howard and two of their friends, Diane and Dwayne.

    Taking their coats, Billy informed them that Jesus would be there any minute and that they had better be REALLY good.

    After being informed by Mom and Dad what was going on, everyone told Billy that they would be on their best behavior.

   

    The turkey was done. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the special drink were carefully positioned at the place where Billy had set Jesus’ plate and silverware. Billy had even added an extra pillow in the chair that Jesus would sit in.

    But Jesus still hadn’t appeared.

    “Where is He?” Billy asked anyone who would listen. “He HAS to be thirsty and He said He’d be here if I asked Him.”

    “Billy, let me read something to you from God’s Word,” Dad said.

     As everyone sat at the Thanksgiving table, Dad opened the Bible and read:

 

  “’I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.'  The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?

 

  When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you?

 When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?'

 

 The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!'” Matthew 25:35-40

  

    “So you see, Billy, Jesus IS here!” Dad said. He is in everyone who is sitting at this Thanksgiving table. He DID come! But He is especially in Diane and Dwayne, since they are strangers to you. You have never met them until today, isn’t that right?”

 

   “Y-e-e-e-e-e-s-s-s-s-s,” Billy said slowly, trying to let all that Dad read and said sink in.

   Crawling down from his place at the table, Billy picked up the glass of special kool-aid and the peanut butter and jelly sandwich that he had made so thoughtfully. Carefully he walked to the other side of the table. He sat the drink in front of Dwayne and the sandwich in front of Diane.

 

   “Welcome to our Thanksgiving!” Billy said, his face shining.

 

   Leaning close to Dwayne’s chest and cupping his hands to his mouth, Billy then whispered toward Dwayne’s heart, “And Happy Thanksgiving, Jesus!”

 

  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL! I’m praying that on this Thanksgiving, you ALL have MANY strangers in YOUR house!