Fishing for the Key

In a prayer letter to his supporters Billy Graham told this Story: there was a mother in an African nation who came to Christ and grew in her commitment and devotion to the Lord. As so often happens, however, this alienated her from her husband, and over the years he grew to despise and hate her new devotion to Christ.

“His anger and bitterness reached their climax when he decided to kill his wife, their two children and himself, unable to live in such self inflicted misery. But he needed a motive. He decided He decided he would accuse her of stealing his precious keys-the keys were to the bank, the house, and the car. Early one afternoon he left his bank and headed for the Tavern. His route took him across a footbridge extended over the headwaters of the Nile River. He paused above the river and dropped the keys. He spent all afternoon drinking and carousing.

“Later that afternoon, his wife went to the fish market to buy the evening meal. She purchased a large Nile perch. As she was gutting the fish, to her astonishment, in it’s belly were her husband’s keys. How had they gotten there? What were the circumstances? She did not know; but she cleaned them up and hung them on the hook.

Sufficiently drunk, the young banker came home that night and pounded open the front door shouting, “Woman, where are my keys?” Already in bed, she got up, picked them off the hook in the bedroom, and handed them to her husband. When he saw the keys, by his own testimony he immediately became sober and was instantly converted. He fell on his knee’s sobbing, asked for forgiveness, and confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.”