I will tell you a sad story from many years ago.
I was thirty-one, and I was putting my seven-year-old daughter to bed one night. It was Christmas time, with carols galore everywhere, and after she said her (ritual) prayers, she wanted to ask me something. She said, “Mommy, is Jesus really God?”
This was during the period in my life when I THOUGHT I was a Christian because I had grown up in the church and I wasn’t Jewish so I must be a Christian, right? I hated child evangelism because I thought it was manipulating the emotions of children too young to make such decisions. Oh, I was very sure of myself. And so I said to my precious daughter, “Andi, that’s something you will have to decide when you get older.” She was so troubled, and she said, “But I want you to tell me!” And I said, again, “No, sweetheart. You will decide that when you are older.”
I remember feeling very shaky as I left her room, but I did not doubt that I had done the right thing. And so life went on. Some years later God brought me to the truth, and I REALLY became a Christian, and so did my children ---- all except Andi. It was like she had slipped through the cracks. And I suffered. I could clearly remember every detail of that night when she begged me to tell her who Jesus was, and I refused to give her the answer. She became like I had been; she and her husband went to church because that’s what nice people in Texas do on Sunday, but her life was her own. And I prayed and prayed through many tears.
Then, some more years later, she had an accident at work and had one finger removed, and came home to New Jersey in a cast to heal. And one Sunday night she was having dinner at her brother’s house instead of going to church like I wanted, and the reason that they didn’t show up was that her brother was leading her to the Lord! Praise God! Then she wanted to be baptized right away and so she was, in the ocean, with one arm in a cast held up above the waves!
BUT GOD…such wonderful, wonderful words! In the midst of my grief and fear, He reached down and touched the heart of my precious daughter and repaired the damage of my arrogant decision. He also taught me a few things about needing to be right and the folly of ‘leaning on my own understanding.’
Do you, perhaps, have someone you love who resists every effort to tell him or her about your wonderful savior? Have you prayed and prayed, seemingly with no result? Have you wondered if God even hears you?
He hears, and He cares. It is so hard to try to understand God’s timing. My dear grandmother was a devoted Christian, and I know she must have known I wasn’t, and I know she prayed for me, but she died before I really learned to love the Lord. Still, when we pray for the salvation of one we love, we can be sure that we are praying in God’s will, and that He wants the same thing!
So be encouraged. Pray and pray and pray. Know that God’s timing is perfect. Know that God loves you and that loved one beyond your understanding. Remember all the seemingly impossible stories where great sinners turned to the Lord. Remember stories like mine, where I also had to repent of my arrogance and pride and allow God to change me.
This is the God we love and worship. This is the God we serve. And this is the God who loves us, and comforts every grieving heart. Trust Him.
