Today’s PDL Devotional, Someone Remembers, was another excellent read. In it, John Fischer writes:
These are people whose lives we affect by simply being faithful to what we have been given to do. You may touch someone today in ways you will never know. That’s why it’s important to be faithful in using the gifts you have been given to serve others. You never know when someone’s life or inspiration may depend on it.
When my daughters were young and I was able to be a stay-at-home mom, lots of kids around the neighborhood spent lots of time at our house. I preferred it that way. I would rather have 15 crazy kids in my house and know where my daughters were than have them elsewhere and not be sure.
Anyway, my oldest daughter’s best friend, “T,” was over a lot, and one time we had a sleep over. That night there was a severe storm, and the kids were scared. I told them what the Bible says about angels camped around us. Not wimpy little Hallmark angels either but the real, big, protective, warrior kind. To be honest, I didn’t think much about it. It was automatic to share what the Scriptures said. (As an aside, T’s mom was a member of a church that calls itself Christian but has other beliefs and other writings which take precedent over the Bible; her father had no religious beliefs that I know of.) A year or two later, T and her family moved away and contact was lost.
Okay, fast-forward two decades. I got an email from a writer who moved to a new location, an air force base, I think. Lo and behold, she met this young woman (I believe it was at a Bible study, but I would have to search back through old emails to confirm that) who said she used to know someone who had become a writer. Turns out that someone was me. This was T who had grown up, married, and found Christ while her husband was serving in Italy. After my writer acquaintance confirmed it was okay, email addresses were exchanged.
When T wrote to me, she said that one thing that stood out from her childhood was the memory of that stormy night and how I had told her and my daughters about the angels who stood guard over those who belonged to Him and the impact that night had on her. She shared with me a beautiful testimony about how she (and her husband) had found Christ as their Savior.
I didn’t set out to proselytize that little girl. I didn’t share the steps to salvation or the four spiritual laws. I just lived what I believed. I love it that God dropped this little pearl into my lap, letting me know that, yes, there are lives I have touched for Him. But God willing, if I’ve lived right, I will meet many more in heaven who I will never hear about here on earth.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin
I love to hear about other peoples’ “seed pearls” nearly as much as the ones the Lord lets me “in on” in my own life…thanks for sharing that one!
(Just think of how many “jewels” there could be out there just from multitudes of readers who have been moved by a phrase, a paragraph, a book the Lord’s given you to write… 😉 Like hundreds of thousands of sunlight diamonds dancing on water, catching the light …)
Wonderful, moving story, Robin! It reminds me of what a radio preacher (maybe D. Jeremiah?) said one day… The reason rewards will be handed out at the end of time versus at our death, is because the affect of our life’s work isn’t fully accomplished till then. The ripples of what we do and say and live may, and probably will, keep spreading, long past our life’s span.
Pam put it nicely – “Seed pearls.” I hope I am planting many. Wow, what a wonderful story and God was good to let you see the fruit there.