An Amazing Gift

Sometimes I am cannot fathom all that the Lord has for us, can you?

Can I tell you a secret? I think that the Lord likes for us to wonder about what He is going to do in our life. Think back over a time that you were so excited to give someone a gift that you were almost shaking while they opened it. I think that is how the Lord feels sometimes when He has amazing things to give us.

I know that recently I was the recipient of one of these gifts. I can just imagine Him smiling as He waited for my reaction when I heard the news.

I got a phone call a little over a week ago from my mother. She started the conversation very calmly and then had to explain what she had just said because I didn't understand what she meant. She called to say that my grandfather had accepted the Lord. He has been researching and weighing heavily all the information that he has gathered over a long time, especially this past year. My grandfather is in his 80's and has decided that a relationship with Jesus is very important.

I can remember after I became a Christian, my parents had just divorced, thinking that I really didn't understand the impact of this decision that I had just made. I knew that I had a lot of emotions going on inside and I didn't know what to do with them. I remember thinking that all the "talking" I did inside my head could now be heard by the Lord! Little did I know that He had been with me all along, way before I decided to ask Jesus in my heart.

Not too long after that I realized that there were other people in my family that didn't know Jesus the way I was getting to know him. My grandfather was one of those people. If anyone knows me they know that I am extremely quiet and it takes a lot for me to confront someone especially about "Jesus." Well I did and it didn't turn out that well. But I kept praying for him. I knew that Jesus could speak to him the same way He'd spoken to me. I admitted that I was nothing without Him, I can't do anything good apart from Him and I believed that He was the only way to heaven. He says so in His word.

I continued praying for the next 20 years for my grandpa. Sometimes I think that I pray for something not really believing that it will happen. It just "feels good" to pray it, I think, "Well, at least I got that off my chest." Almost 3 years ago, I felt the Lord encourage me to continue praying for my grandpa. I had given up, I admit, at times, because he made it clear that he didn't want to hear it anymore. "Why should I keep going Lord?" He gave me some scripture that made it very clear that I needed to continue. I couldn't see what affect this was having on him, but I was beginning to see the affect on me. Perseverance and faith.


"Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."
- Ephesians 2:7 (The Message)

Now the gift that I received was the best gift I could ever received. Something that I have been anticipating for 20 years. Not all gifts take that long to be delivered, some take even longer, maybe even a lifetime. I am so thankful that I was able to open it and imagine the look on my Father's face watching me open it.