Jon was fighting tears. "Maybe I
have to believe that somebody who died from drugs can go to heaven to be able
to live with what happened," he said. "But I know that Dougie had a
close relationship with Jesus when he was little. Even when he got into his
rebellious period, there were times when he would talk about God. In fact..." He took a deep breath.
"After Dougie died we found drug paraphernalia and other things that, had
we searched and found them earlier, would have tipped us off to how serious his
problems were. But... we didn't, so .
. . Anyway, we found a diary, too. Dougie really liked to write, and apparently
he only expressed his innermost thoughts and feelings on paper. It was hard to
read it and realize how much he'd been hurting before he died, and how blind we
were to his pain. But throughout the pages we found him crying out to God for help,
pouring out his heart to the only One he seemed able to trust. Just before he
died, he had written out a prayer asking for God's forgiveness. I have to
believe that God heard that prayer and that our Dougie is safe with him
now."
Ben continued to look into Jon's
eyes. "So," he said finally, "you think God can even forgive
something as bad as drugs." "Definitely,” said Jon, “God not only can
but does. He's much more anxious to forgive us than we are to ask Him for it.
And there's nothing—absolutely nothing—that He won't forgive."
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