I could go on and describe all those I remember. There were no strangers in that church. Everyone knew everybody - or thought they did. We were a close-knit community. It was hard to have secrets in that small town. As hard as that was at times, it paid great dividends in the care and concern that was lavished on those in need of comfort and support. I can remember how the town turned out for funerals and looked out for one another when needed.

His mother died of cancer when Jack (as C. S. was nicknamed) was nine, and he and his brother Warnie were sent away to a brutal boarding school. When he finally escaped to begin his studies at Oxford University he was dispatched to the bloody battlefields of the First World War where his friend Paddy Moore died in the final months of the conflict.

Yet, despite having millions of the redeemed of all the ages with Him at His side night and day, Jesus, on a night long ago, stepped down from that place and onto this Earth because there was at least one lost soul left that He wanted to have with Him (see John 17:24). That one lost soul is you and He left not ninety-nine but countless millions to make sure that you, if you want, can forever be with Him, healed, restored and reconciled to be what He always meant for you to be.

Yet, despite having millions of the redeemed of all the ages with Him at His side night and day, Jesus, on a night long ago, stepped down from that place and onto this Earth because there was at least one lost soul left that He wanted to have with Him (see John 17:24). That one lost soul is you and He left not ninety-nine but countless millions to make sure that you, if you want, can forever be with Him, healed, restored and reconciled to be what He always meant for you to be.