Last night I had to sleep on the couch propped up with pillows, because I am getting a bad cold. I fell asleep rather quickly only to wake up in the middle of the night to a song lyric running through my heart “Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world”, which is actually from 1 John 4:4. I took that as a signal from the Lord, to pray for my children.
There have been nights where I’ve been in a worried state, but last night was different. Very peacefully I whispered each of their names to Jesus, in faith – that He would accomplish, and complete what he began in them.
Then a strange realization came to me, a memory from the past. There was an elderly man, and his wife that came over from England and moved in across the street from us. He told me one afternoon over tea that he and his wife prayed for our children regularly. I could see the snow that day, and the window they looked out that framed our front yard, where our children played. He told me of when he was a soldier. He took messages to the front lines in World War II.
Suddenly, propped up in the dark, in the middle of the night, in a small humble living room, I felt like royalty. I felt so loved, that God would choose to put my children’s well-being, on the heart of a soldier and his wife.
Just as soon as I had thanked God for that memory, another couple came to mind. The man had told me of how when he was a teenager, he agreed to take his mother to an evangelical tent meeting, and there he accepted Christ. He had been part of a gang and was in deep trouble, but once he accepted Christ his life was changed. He grew up to be a preacher and fell in love with a nurse who originally came from Canada. She was in love with him too, but felt called to Africa. He followed her to Africa, where they married. Eventually they moved to Canada, near my hometown. One night they went to a banquet at a country school and saw one of my children’s names on a book mark at their place setting. From that time on, nearly twelve years ago, they began praying for my son everyday.
There in the dark I saw an ancient yellowed map of England. My husband’s grandparents came from England, and a red dot appeared. My mother’s Grandmother came from England, another red dot appeared. I wasn’t sure of my father’s ancestry, but know that his name, (my maiden name) – is English and means shelter. I could see red dots all over the map, representing families, strangers unaware of the other, and yet through accepting Christ, over time, across an ocean, through a window, at a table, spirits converged.
“What a heritage we have through you O Lord” I whispered. “Who am I that You are mindful of me, and my children?” I asked him in the dark.
As I chose to pray for my children in faith, He chose to show me His handiwork, and how He too pursues them, and prays for them. And it isn’t that he needs to use us to accomplish His will. He could accomplish what He wants on his own, but he involves us in one big mystery miracle of love. I saw His love in the middle of the night, the soldier, the preacher, the prayer.
The map faded, my breathing became louder, and my eyelids grew heavy again. Sleep returned, but not before I whispered “You are great indeed O Lord!”
cindysouljourney 