“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” not to condemn the world but to save it.

I have read and said those words thousands of times in my life.  It was not until my only son, James was born that I grasped in any sense, the scope of that love.  James’ mother and I love our only son so much we would give up the world in order to save him.  What parent would not run into a burning building or in front of a train to save their child?  How infinitely greater is God’s love that he would give his son to die for us?

When I was about 15 years old, my brother Robert was born.  One of my fondest memories was when he came home from the hospital and my Grandfather got to hold him for the first time.  Sitting there at the kitchen table he tore his eye off the baby, looked up, and asked, “How can anyone not believe in God after holding a baby?”  I have been asking myself the same question ever since.

When you look back you can see Jesus at work in your life even though you may not have realized it at the time.

When James was six years-old, we would take him to an area of Alexandria, Virginia called ‘The Waterfront’ specifically an area called the Torpedo Factory.  What had been used at one time to win World War II was now an art center where local artists created and sold their works.  In front of the factory, street musicians and comedians plied their trades for donations.  One, Carl had a routine where he would stand still as a statue until someone put some money in his hat.  Once someone paid he would become animated, press a button on a toy electric saxophone and juggle or dance till the music stopped.  Then he would revert to being a statue until the next donation.  It was a clever act but James really loved it and would look forward to seeing Carl on every visit.  One Friday night after our visit with Carl we were driving home and heard sobbing and sniffling coming from the back seat.

Carol and I were upset because James was acting fine just minutes before.  “Are you sick?”, “What’s wrong?”

Choking back tears, he asked, “Where will Carl sleep?  Where will he get food?  What will happen to him?”

We explained how we had been going to see Carl for a long time; he surely had a job, home and family.  Carl liked performing and making kids like James happy.  James’ was not buying it.  When we got home, James emptied his bank and made us promise to take him back the next day.  Of course, we agreed.  The next day James walked up and filled Carl’s hat with all his savings.  Carl looked at us with a questioning look like ‘Is this OK?’  But he knew it was.  That turned out to be Carl’s last performance with the saxophone because after it he gave it to James.

I did not know it then, but I know it now.  Jesus was teaching me about giving and caring for my fellow man through James and Carl.

When James’ was just a toddler an incident happened which showed the lord was standing right beside us. 

Our home in Virginia was in a quiet neighborhood.  Only the front of our yard was open to the street, both sides and the backyard were lined by impenetrable hedges.  Carol and I were working in the yard and James was in the back playing in his sandbox.  Since he would have to walk within five feet of us to get to the street, we were not paying enough attention to him.  Lunchtime came and we went to get James and go inside.  To our absolute terror, we found he was gone.  We ran around and through the house screaming at the top of our lungs.  The Neighbors took up the search and started running up and down the street.  I paused in my panicked prayers only long enough to call 911 and explain our three year-old was missing.  Carol, still outside in the driveway, was approached by a woman she had never seen before…  “They like to hide in cars” she told Carol.

Carol ran into the garage attached to the house, the one I had run past in my search of the house for James and there hiding behind the back seat was James.  Carol went out to tell the woman and everyone searching for James that he was found but the woman was gone.  Carol asked the other searchers if any of them had seen the lady in the driveway but none of them had seen her.

The last encounter with the Lord at work in my life, that  I want to tell you about took place just this last September.  The Intercessory Prayer Group of Holy Trinity also played a large part in it.

Last May my 87 year-old Aunt Eleanor broke her hip after mowing the lawn at the farm she had lived on her entire life. While her brothers took advantage of World War Two to discover and settle around the country, she stayed behind with her mother and father to work the farm.  Since 1973, when her mother passed away she lived alone on that land, never having married but active in the church and her community.  Anyone who saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” has seen her story performed by Jimmy Stewart.

Aunt Eleanor was so active all her life I was afraid a broken hip would alter her lifestyle so much so that her real age catch up with her.  We asked the Holy Trinity Intercessory Prayer group join us in praying for her recovery.  My Uncle Ralph wrote back in August thanking Holy Trinity for their prayers and relating that progress was slow for Aunt Eleanor had developed asthma and was now in an assisted living facility.  In September, I got a note from Uncle Ralph that Aunt Eleanor wanted to know if I could come down for a visit. 

That weekend I drove down to North Carolina to see her expecting the worst.  I was stunned at how well she was.  The asthma was a side affect of a prescription she was taking and now gone.  She was strong enough to walk up and down three flights of stairs to straighten her hip and she was surrounded by friends she had known for her entire life.  She no longer had to spend her life maintaining a farm but could now spend that time with her friends and family.  We went to lunch and were constantly greeted by people coming up to say hello to her, Church members, neighbors, and acquaintances of a lifetime.  It was not just that Aunt Eleanor had had a full recovery, it was that she was now enjoying some of the happiest days of her life among her friends without a care in the world.

I would like to close with a quote from a book I recently re-read with the encouragement of Pastor Mary and the Holy Trinity Book Club, C. S. Lewis ‘The Screwtape Letters’.  In this passage, he describes a man’s thoughts as he dies and enters Heaven…

“He saw Them…  He had not the faintest conception till that very hour of how they would look, and even doubted their existence.  But when he saw them he knew that he had always known them and realized what part each one of them had played at many an hour in his life when he had supposed himself alone, so that now he could say to them, one by one, not ‘Who are you” but “So it was you all the time’.