Yesterday was the first palindrome date apparently in the last 909 years or something crazy like that. To be born on 02 02 2020 would be the coolest thing, I thought, and told my husband out loud, "Someone has to be born today so they can have that birthday!" Little did I know that someone would be born on that day....born again.
Last night my older four kids and I had the privilege of walking one of their friends from darkness to light. It had to be one of the most amazing experiences with my children to date. They had met her through the restaurant they worked at. I had heard of her for months and wasn't super happy with what I had heard about her. She wasn't the best influence around them and often made them feel uncomfortable with her behaviour. I always had this underlying fear she and the other staff would ultimately succeed at bringing my children down spiritually as it isn't the best environment at times.
But, unbeknownst to us, she had a church background and had participated on mission trips to El Salvador over the years building houses and helping out in various other ways. Each time she went she would experience a spiritual high of some kind, but would then return and life would just go back to normal as she fell back into her old friendships and way of living. She didn't know how to change what she was doing and, quite frankly, didn't want to. She was having fun. However, all the while, she was feeling badly deep down and felt like she was in a spiritual fog.
On her most recent trip this past month, from day one, her eyes were opened as she started to hear other people's testimonies of what God was doing in their lives, how He was real to them. She said she started seeing everything differently for the first time in her life. She found herself crying every day as she longed for this in her own life. Her eyes were even opened to just the beauty of nature and creation for the first time. She started to see there was no way that could have just come about on its own. God had to be real. But how could she keep that feeling of closeness to God? She had so many questions.
On her first shift back at work she immediately started talking to my son and tried to explain what little she could in between serving people. My son sensed something was different about her right away and told me when he got home about all her questions. I said, "Bring her over!" She was immediately receptive and was so happy to come. What I wasn't expecting was to have it work out so that all four of the older ones could be together with me. I wasn't sure how things were going to fall into place.
After sharing her story with us I wondered to myself, maybe she hasn't taken that step of faith herself? And suddenly all my years of growing up in a family where the gospel was shared regularly with everyone my parents met, where I had been trained as a young child to share my faith, where I had learned to use tracts to bring people to faith, where I had seen people walk through understanding how Christ is not on the throne of your life, though He longs to be.......it all kicked in that moment and I asked her,
"Do you have full assurance that if you were to die tonight you would know 100% that you are going to heaven? Have you ever asked Jesus to come into your life?"
"No."
"Would you like to pray that prayer right now?"
"Yes!"
We all started crying. What a moment. I got my wits about me and and stumbled through the prayer of salvation and she literally repeated the words out loud phrase by phrase for all of us to hear. Then, each one of my children prayed for her as tears streamed down all of our faces.
"The angels are rejoicing!" My daughter said happily! Hugs and more tears.
Then, the questions. Trying to answer everything she wanted to know. Where to go next, how to keep herself from toxic people who will try to steer her away from God, how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to get into a new group of friends who will build her up, how to make sure we see her more.....wow...such an exciting time. What a privilege for us as a family to be alongside her.
I was so grateful to know she had seen a difference in my kids at work that she knew there was something about them that she longed for. She wasn't sure how they had handled each challenge at work compared to how others handled things. To know she could go to them made me so happy. I praised God for how He used them in her life. I was the most blessed to be able to walk her through her final steps into the kingdom. The groundwork had been done before I ever met her.
I don't know how many people it takes before someone comes to Christ, but I know it is rarely just one. Many, many people come into our lives that we watch, talk to, ask questions with before making a decision....to be someone along the path can be hard as you often never see people make a decision for the Lord. To be the one at the end can be the most fulfilling and that was my privilege last night. Incredible.
I thank God on so many levels, for my parents, their hearts for the lost, for the Christian organization that trained me at all the staff training events summer after summer as a child, for my time at university where I really saw a heart for the lost, and then for my kids last night who have somehow managed to get that heart, too, and are now seeing how as a family unit we can bring people to Christ....together! How amazing!
Before she came over she had already purchased a Bible, a journal and another book to help her in her faith. On the first page of her Bible I had my daughter write her new birthday, her spiritual birthday, 02 02 2020! What a cool birthday! I couldn't believe someone had gotten born on the very day I thought would be the neatest birthday of all time! We all wrote our names to signify we had been there when it happened with verses alongside our signatures. She'll have the Bible for many years to come and she'll never forget what happened to her I'm sure. I know I won't forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment