Only A Step From Satan's Door

This is a poem that my Grandma wrote. I've always remembered it since I was a little girl. It paints such a picture.  Enjoy...

Only a Step From Satan’s Door

Only a step from Satan’s door -
    The man, so old, was bent in sin;
His past relived before his eyes,
    For death was slowly creeping in.

He’d had a home where love abounds
    And shared a mother’s tender care;
He’d known a father’s guiding hand,
    And love for him was everywhere.

He’d been to church and learned the ‘rule’,
    For he’d been taught the wrong from right.
He’d heard of Christ - the crucified -
    The only way, the Truth and Light!

“Some other time,” had been his plea,
    As worldly pleasures beckoned him;
He turned from all the things held dear
    And, thus, began his life of sin.

Drinking and gambling, day and night,
    Soon had possession of his life.
His money seemed to waste away
    With nothing left but grief and strife.

For all his friends had turned him down,
    His job was gone, he’d lost his health;
His family, home, and self respect
    Departed with his dwindling wealth.

It’d been a gay and carefree life,
    As year by year sped quickly by;
But sin had left its crimson mark
    And, now, he was about to die.

For, in a drunken state of mind,
    He’d staggered from an open bar
Into the path of death, itself -
    He’d fell beneath a speeding car.

An ambulance was called in haste,
    For there had been no time to lose,
And, to the hospital, they rushed,
    The latest victim of the booze.

There, all alone, the end so near,
    The man in agony did lay;
Only a step from Satan’s door -
    Only a moment left to pray!

He thought of family, home, and friends -
     Of early days where love was found.
He longed to see each face once more -
    To hear just one familiar sound.

But there he lay, so far from home,
    As nurse and doctor stood close by
Trying to ease the pain he bore -
    Seconds before he was to die.

Only a step from Satan’s door,
    As on the bed of death he lay;
Troubled in spirit, breath by breath,
    His life was fading fast away.

Then, from the dim, swept past once more,
    He saw the Savior’s outstretched hand.
“Come unto me, I’ll give you rest;
    Break free from Satan’s last demand!”

Would he respond to this last plea
    And trust the Lord to save his soul,
Or had he waited once too long
    And Hell would be his final goal?

His trembling hand reached out to grasp -
    As if something were there in space -
And taking hold of God’s firm hand,
    A smile began to light his face.

He motioned for the doctor, then,
    To bend down low, that he might hear
The parting words he had to say;
    His happiness shown through a tear!

The doctor had to strain his ears
    To catch the old man’s dying word
And in a feeble voice - so faint,
    Well, here is what the doctor heard:

“I’ve spent my life all warped in sin,
    While traveling down the road I trod;
Only a step from Satan’s door,
    But Safe, at last, to be with God!”

And with these words the old man died,
    A smile still lighting up his face;
For not in Hell but Heaven above,
    He’d found his final resting place!

But don’t live like that old man did
    And wait ‘til life has passed you by;
You man not have the chance he had
    To turn to Christ before you die.

Don’t wait until you find that you
    Are just one step from Satan’s door’
Repent, believe, receive Him now -
    Be safe with Christ forever more!

- Norma Sara May Davis