August 1: Grandmother Explains God to Mugger

It was late afternoon when 92-year-old Pauline Jacobi finished shopping at the Dyerburg, Tennessee, Wal-mart.  As she sat in her car ready to drive home, a stranger opened the passenger door and got in.  “Give me your money,” he demanded.  She told him no, so he threatened to kill her.

“Then the good Lord took over,” Jacobi told the Dyersburg State Gazette.  “I said, ‘If you kill me, I’m going straight to heaven.  If you kill me, you’re going to hell.’”

Jacobi noticed that the man looked disheveled, but not mean.  In fact, he had sad eyes.  She asked him his name, and he told her Ricky.  Jacobi, a lifelong churchgoer, then asked if he wanted to go to heaven someday.  Ricky said he did, but was afraid the Lord wouldn’t take him.

Jacobi explained God’s forgiveness and grace to Ricky, then gave him all the money she had in her purse—$10 dollars—with a warning not to spend it on liquor.  Ricky shed a tear, kissed Jacobi on the cheek, and got out of the car.  Jacobi doesn’t know what happened to Ricky, but she hopes she brought him a little bit closer to a better life in this world—and the next.

The Lord was my support.  (Psalm 18:18)

Let us change hearts together, Jesus.