Something has happened. Something happened yesterday that has forever changed the face and dynamic of our family. I think that normally a statement like this precedes tragic news but our family's news is in fact the very opposite of tragic, it is triumphant.
Truth be told, the events of yesterday were set in motion before the dawn of time, before man was ever God-breathed into life. God the Father saw the events of yesterday unfolding before we could even fathom because they were His will and His plan for our lives. Every moment since my birth, since Brandon's birth, since the birth of our children, every decision that was made for us or by us, put us on the path that led us to yesterday. Even when we made decisions that took us out of the will of God, because Brandon and I were His, Christ took us gently by the hands and led us back...because He knew what a momentous day yesterday would be. Every church service, every messaged preached, every song sung or bible verse learned, every conversation that ever took place within our family, was leading up to the event that took place yesterday. And more than that, every moment that ever took place in the lives of the people in my family's lives were leading up to yesterday. When you sit back and look at how one event can be so affected and so impacted by so many different people and the choices, both good and bad, that they make, you cannot help but be awestruck at how the hand of God moves in and out of our lives.
Yesterday started just like any other Tuesday in our house. Brandon had left for work in the wee hours of the morning, long before the sun rose. Kieran woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, bounding into my bed, where Reaghan and I were still sleeping, somewhat peacefully. He lay there contemplating life's serious questions, like whether the pterodactyl or the pteranodon would win in a prehistoric battle, as he always did, and waited for the rest of the house to rise. It wasn't long before the imaginary battle in Kieran's mind spilled over into reality, and his play fighting dinosaur figurines had Reaghan and me awake for the day. While the two of them sat and played in the living room, I crept into the boys' bedroom to check on Devlin. He is after my own heart and loves to sleep in as much as I do. I checked to make sure he was still breathing and covered up and warm, and wistfully wished I could crawl in next to him and cuddle. But I crept back out and went to the kitchen to get breakfast started. By the time breakfast was ready, Devlin had made his way into the living room to play with his brother and sister. While they ate, I went about my morning housework until it was time to nurse the baby and get her down for her first nap of the day.
Such was the normal routine for our days and it was nothing but ordinary until the afternoon.
After lunch and the baby's second nap of the day, I am usually busy about my afternoon housework and starting supper. I was in the laundry room when the boys came in and Devlin had a serious look on his face.
"Momma," he said. "I don't want to be bad anymore. I don't want to do bad things anymore. I hear God calling my name."
This revelation didn't come altogether out of nowhere. For many months he had been asking serious questions about Jesus and why He'd had to die on the cross. Having just turned 5, we'd kept salvation and Calvary in the simplest terms we could without losing the significance of what they meant. So when he told me this, I knew that he understood that the bad things he was talking about were his sins, and that he didn't want to sin anymore. And that he understood that that feeling and desire to not want to do bad things was the Holy Ghost beckoning him to get saved, calling his name. I asked him if he knew what he needed to do so that he wouldn't want to do bad things anymore. He told me that he did, he knew he needed to get saved because God was calling his name.
By this time we had slowly migrated to the boys' bedroom and we were sitting on Kieran's bed while he listened intently to our conversation. I asked him then if he knew what he needed to do.
He climbed up in my lap and said, "I need to pray Momma. Can I pray now?"
I glanced quickly at the time, 3:19pm. I knew that his Daddy would be home soon. I knew that he wouldn't want to miss what was about to happen. But I knew that I couldn't make him wait, I couldn't squelch the work that the Holy Ghost was doing in his heart at that very moment. As the clock rolled over to 3:20pm, I nodded and he began to pray.
"Dear God, we come to you tonight to ask you to save me and to pray that you would save my brother too one day. In Jesus sweet name I do pray, Amen."
And just like that, with one sweet solitary prayer, our family as we had known it, was forever and eternally changed.
Tears were flowing down my cheeks and his when he looked up at me and said, "I'm different Momma. I'm saved!"
Never have I ever felt the love of Jesus so implicitly and absolutely. I knew He loved me when He saved me, but to be there, to be present in the moment when my son was saved, to know that He had suffered on Calvary to save my son, was the most magnificent moment in my life. It was the moment when the most important work in my life, for Devlin's life, was fulfilled.
We immediately called Brandon at work and then Nanna and Poppa and we spent the rest of the evening basking in the glow of our Savior's love.
Today a new work in my life, for Devlin's life, begins. He is now a new Christian, an infant in Salvation, and I must continue to help him along the righteous path. He has made the most important decision, and now he must begin to grow in his relationship with Christ. And for him to do so, I must continue to grow in mine. I must pray everyday that I be a stepping stone in his Christian life, rather than a stumbling block. And I will spend every day thanking Him for this blessing in our family, and praying for the days when Kieran and Reaghan will accept Him as their Savior as well.
Mark 10:14b
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Romans 10:13
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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