Making Friends for Jesus

When I was 5 years old, our family was shaken to its core. It was a hot August day and I was playing outside. The windows were open – these were the days before air conditioning! – and I heard the phone ring, and then I heard my mother crying. I remember a newspaper man coming to the house for a picture of my father, who had been seriously injured in the factory where he was employed.

A machine had exploded and Dad was hit by flying metal. It sheared off about half the fingers on his left hand, which he had raised to shield his face, and opened a life-threatening gash into his forehead. His brain was exposed to the atmosphere and to infection. He was in a coma. We didn’t know if he would ever wake up. We didn’t even know if he would live. Picture my mom, 32 years old, with four boys between the ages of 2 and 14, her husband somewhere between life and death.

Across the street and down seven houses lived Ollie Ewell, a Christ follower. She heard about this tragedy and knew that a young wife and mother needed a friend. So Ollie, the hands and feet of Christ, took a risk. She walked down the street, knocked on our front door, and introduced herself to my mother. They became lifelong friends, coming to see each other as sisters. Ollie was a disciple of Jesus and faithfully did what her Lord wanted done. A simple act of love to a total stranger – a young mother who needed a friend.

Eventually my father recovered, returned home, and went back to work. Some years later, I started going to church with Ollie and her family. And on Tuesday of this week (March 24, 2015), Ollie went home to be with God at the age of 92. I firmly believe that my coming to faith in Christ is a direct result of Ollie’s act of friendship in 1955. I further believe that any good I might do for the Kingdom is now credited to Ollie, for none of that good would ever have been done without Ollie’s walk of friendship sixty years ago.

I write this today to encourage you to do what Ollie did for my mother when my father lay between life and death in the hospital. Be a friend to the friendless. Bring hope to the hopeless. Bring joy to the joyless. Take seriously Christ’s call on your life. Be Jesus to every person you meet. Treat everyone as a child of God. Give gifts of love, acceptance, and friendship to those in need. Make friends for Jesus. After all, it’s really what he wants you to do!