If you haven’t figured out, I really enjoy telling stories. But there are some stories that I deem far more valuable and fun to tell than others, the stories about Jesus and His prophets, for example. Those stories do a lot more than just warm our hearts. They teach us, they edify us, and they give us hope. May I illustrate with the following story the power of stories about Jesus?

Enid Ellis tells the story of a man named Merle. He was a patient in the nursing home where she worked. Merle was terminally ill with a rare disease that was taking his life one inch at a time. It was common for Merle to ask for all the morphine he could get, and as often as he could get it. He was tense, anxious, and always depressed. One night on her lunch break, she went in and sat down by his bed, and on a whim asked him what he knew about Jesus Christ.

His answer: “Who’s [Who is] that? I thought that was just a swear word.”

Shocked by the response, Enid spent the rest of her lunch break teaching Merle of the Savior, and His plan of salvation. When the break was over, he didn’t want her to leave. But she assured him she would be back and they would talk more later. Merle was eager to hear.

Day after day they talked about the Savior. One day she presented him with set of scriptures. He was thrilled and his first question:

“Where do I find the stories of Christ?”

She showed him, and Merle stayed up most of that night reading.

Over time the staff at the nursing home noticed a remarkable change come over Merle. As his faith in the Savior grew, he no longer asked for morphine. A wonderful aura of peace settled over him. Day after day he’d study the scriptures voraciously, and often well into the night. At times Merle would ask her again,

“Please tell me [again] some stories of Jesus,” and she would oblige.

Well, it wasn’t long after that that Merle passed away. And when they found him, his scriptures were open on his chest, and there was a look of peace on his countenance. The simple stories of the greatest man who ever lived transformed a life lived more than sixty years in depression and anxiety. If it will do that for him, what will these stories do for us?