I regret that so much time has passed since I last wrote on this blog. It seems the demands for each day have doubled and the time in each day has been cut in half. That's a tough equation!
Our grandson, whom I wrote about a couple of months ago, was only with us five weeks. The circumstances of his sudden, deceitful departure left me in tears for several days. We put everything else on hold, pouring out our lives for this one young 13-year-old whose life we hoped could be forever changed by his time with us. We gave him memorable Colorado experiences of seeing elk on 14,000 foot mountain peaks, and went with him to his cross country matches. We shared with him the spiritual power of keeping the Sabbath and spent precious hours with him in the pages of Scripture. We made certain he had his cell phone and a Samsung tablet, keeping in step with the techno-world of modern kids; but we put down boundaries he had never had before. The cell phone had to stay upstairs with us at night and the lights had to go out by 9:00 p.m, ensuring that he would get a good night's sleep. It didn't take long for him to reach back into the "world of no rules" from which he came, and then he went behind our backs and arranged his departure without our knowledge. Two days after he was gone I was still weeping over what had seemed like a great failure when the Holy Spirit clearly spoke to me and said, "Stop weeping. I will not waste one seed you sowed into his life." I chose to believe that and I moved on.
Shortly afterward, we were gathering on a Friday night with the men of the prison ministry we work with, when one young 19-year-old boy walked into the room, newly released from prison. I recognized him immediately as my daughter was his high school choir teacher for four years and I had often subbed for her. He stared at me, as shocked to see me there as I was to see him! We all sat down for our time of Bible study and we were discussing whether these men, who had completed their prison sentences and were now re-entering society, mattered to God. This young guy I knew spoke up with confidence and said, "Well, Jesus left the 99 sheep to go look for one. I think we do matter."
It really touched me. This kid who had often sat right next to me on the piano bench in choir class, and then committed a crime that would forever change his life, still came out with a solid truth etched into his mind. "Jesus left the 99 sheep to go look for one." Surely our grandson would know someday that he was that "one" in September of 2015. Surely the memory of a Godly, peaceful home where he was so deeply cared about would cause him someday to recall that Jesus had cared enough to come looking just for him!
And as for me...Father continues to remind me that each of these come into our lives for a season and we have a brief opportunity to sow a seed of Messiah's love, even if it seems cut short. We had another brief opportunity after this to bring a good friend suffering a deep depression into our home, and spend two weeks praying, doing spiritual warfare, and blessing him as we all fought together for victory. But at the end of the two weeks, I was scheduled to teach and minister elsewhere in the state and asked the Father if I could still make that trip or if I needed to stay home for my friend. He answered me quickly and concisely: "You go. You are not the Savior. I Am."
Not all our efforts to change people's lives for the Kingdom of God seems to bear fruit at the time; that is when we learn to trust in I AM, who is capable of bringing what we started to completion.
"He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Messiah Yeshua."
Philippians 1:5
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