“God sightings” is how my children refer to them – those times when you have loved or served or given, as God might. Those times when you know that a thing was possible only because of God. Because God showed up - He intervened - and took what we had to offer and used it for what HE had to give.
I have been a Christian as long as I can remember. God has been in my life always, to the point where I have a hard time understanding how other people feel when they have been without God for many years and then come to know Him as an adult. I know many people choose salvation at a young age, during their childhood or teen years, but not everyone.
Last night, at a regular, routine, completely ordinary small group meeting, God showed up - in a great big way. I had the privilege of praying with a lady who made the decision, as an adult, to accept God’s gift of salvation.
I’m fascinated by a God who offers saving grace and eternal life until that final moment when we breathe our last. Despite all that we can do to mess up life, He is still willing to forgive, to forget, to free us from all that has entangled us. God is all about mercy, grace, forgiveness, restoration and hope. The world is all about blaming, finger-pointing, greed, destruction. And God’s blanket of love covers that. God Himself covers over all of that in our lives with His amazing grace.
As an adult, what must it be like to turn from
suffering to salvation, darkness to light,
pain to healing, death to life ?
But as an adult there is often more. There is baggage. There is hurt and confusion and a lifetime of uncertainty and searching. There are questions. There are years of wonderings and wanderings. Choices have been made, life has been lived.
And the answer is as monumental as it is simple:
God is love.
Whether you are 2 or 102 when you first understand that, that is all there is to understand. It’s as simple as it needs to be for those who need a short, solid answer. And it’s as complex as it needs to be for those who need a strong, foundational explanation. You can add words to it to help explain life to a seeker, or you can simplify it and switch the words around to teach a toddler that, “Jesus loves me.”
I will never know what it’s like to live life and then to meet Jesus later in life. But that’s not the story that God is writing for me. My story is different than that. My story is the God-story for this heart and life. Your story is the God-story for your heart and life.
And whether you have always known Jesus, or if you meet Him near the end, or somewhere along the journey, the simple truth remains, and it is all we really need to know. All of the rest of what we learn is based on this truth, which grabs our hearts, lifts our heads, lights the way. It is as strong in its all-encompassing wisdom, as it is gentle in its child-like simplicity. It is all we need to know, and the grand sum of all of life.
God is love.
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Ah, the beginnings. What a beautiful moment with that friend at the study. I love the honest, unpretentious way you share your experience of evangelism. It’s so tender and so…doable for all of us other regular (non-pastor, non-Billy Graham) gals!
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Rebekah Reply:
May 14th, 2013 at 7:32 am
Thank you! I’m so amazed and encouraged by all that God is doing in my heart through this small spot in cyber-space. I’m incredibly fulfilled and blessed, and getting to share *that* with others…? It’s all God’s grace!
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