God's reward for faithful ministry is beautifully illustrated by the story of Luke Short, converted at the tender age of 103. Mr Short was sitting under a hedge in Virginia when he happened to remember a sermon he had once heard preached by the famous Puritan John Flavel. As he recalled the sermon, he asked God to forgive his sins right then and there, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Short lived for three more years, and when he died, the following words were inscribed on his tombstone,
"Here lies a babe in grace, aged three years, who died according to nature, aged 106."
Here is the truly remarkable part of the story. The sermon that old Mr. Short remembered had been preached eighty-five years earlier back in England! nearly a century passed between Flavel's sermon and Short's conversion, between the sowing and the reaping. Sooner or later, by the grace of God, faithful work always has it's reward.
Philip Ryken, Entrusted with the Gospel, Crossway Publishing, 2010 page 41
Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9
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