In his Child's History of England, Charles Dickens tells the following interesting story:

This is the romance of the father and mother of Thomas a Becket who, for asserting and maintaining that the power of the clergy was superior to the king's power, was murdered by the knights of Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral of which he was Archbishop.

Gilbert Becket, Thomas a Becket's father, a London merchant, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was taken prisoner by a Saracen lord who had one fair daughter.  She fell in love with him and told him she wanted to marry him, and was willing to become a Christian if they could escape to a Christian country.  He returned her love till he found an opportunity to escape with his servant Richard, and returned to England.  Then he forgot the fair Saracen maiden.

But the Saracen lady had not forgotten Gilbert.  She left her father's house in disguise to follow him and made her way to the coast.  The merchant had taught her two English words, “London” and “Gilbert”.  She went among the ships, saying again and again the same word: “London.”  Sailors showed her a ship bound for London, and she paid her passage with some of her jewels and arrived in London.

As the merchant was sitting one day in his office, Richard, his servant, came running in, saying, “Master!  There is the Saracen lady.  As I live, she is going up and down calling ‘Gilbert! Gilbert!’”  The merchant saw her in the crowd and went to her.  She saw him and fainted in his arms.  Soon after they were married. *

The love of the Saracen lady pictures the love that God has for each one of us.  Though we had forsaken Him by choosing to “escape” into a life of sin (Romans 3:23), God still loves us.  Then, in the person of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, He came looking for us.  Jesus said of Himself, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).  He came to demonstrate God’s love and to offer salvation, reconciliation, and eternal life (Romans 6:23).  It cost Jesus His life.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God will save and give eternal life to those who accept His offer on His terms: place your faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from your sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, seek to walk in the light of His Word, for God promises that “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Won’t YOU respond to His love by giving your life to Him through your trusting obedience?

* From www.moreillustrations.com

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org