~ Just wanted to share something that really encouraged me and I asked permission to share. It is not just what he said but who he is that is an encouragement. Angel is a blessing. I can not say exactly how old he was when I first met him but it was 1988. He was just a little boy. Then the next Summer, 1989, is when we really were able to get to know each other, in what was called Rast camp. He and his family are indelibly marked in my mind. Two very attractive parents with 8 children. Yes, 8!! I love that!!!!! His mom is a truly remarkable woman. His brothers and sisters are great too. And his father, well now you'd just have to meet him. He makes me laugh. He will tell it just like he sees it! You always need one like that around.
~ But the angel who encouraged me is Angel G. He is not perfect just like the rest of us. He has his good days and bad. He struggles as we all do. But I've seen his heart. As a little kid, he was such a blessing. He was the most inquisitive and cynical during Bible lessons at first. He challenged me with his questions, but I was glad he was paying attention enough to have a question for me. As the years went by, he had a serious hunger to understand. I remember one time when I needed someone to go with me to a new camp where the people were not as familiar with who I was, and I knew I might need someone to interpret what I said to the adults, Angel came with me. It was "Solomon" camp. During the lesson as we sat on the blanket and all of the kids were around we had time for questions. He started to ask a few. Then next thing I knew, it was just Angel and I sitting on the ground and for about 20 minutes and he was asking me about something and I'd take him to a verse in the Bible. We went from one Scripture verse to the next. He was hungry!!!!!
~ After many more years past and he was no longer a kid, he quit coming to the Bible clubs that were clearly geared toward children. We would still talk after lessons sometimes, but I knew that he had many things going on in his life that would want to fill that spiritual hunger with food that falsely and temporarily fills. I've spent much time praying for him and all those for whom God would place a special burden in my heart. We have kept in touch even after he has grown up and is now doing very well as a truck driver. He calls every once in a while. He called the other night while on the road. I don't remember exactly how it came up, but we got on the subject of going out to the camps. His dad has his ideas as to why : ) : ). But we were talking about this Summer and I was telling him how I'm still going out there and sometimes I wonder if it really makes a difference. But I told him that I pray and ask the Lord each year if we should keep going out there and He seems to continue to lead us to do that. Angel quickly began to tell me that he believed it did make a difference. He said that if he had not thanked me before, he wanted to say how much it meant to him and the difference it made for him. I REALLY needed to hear those words of encouragement. The Lord knows when we are down. He knows when we wonder if what we do matters, if we are hearing Him, if we are following His lead. He knows and He sends an Angel to give us the affirmation when He sees it is time. I don't know who your Angel is, but we can all thank the Lord for them. But even more importantly it makes me remember what an elderly, very wise and strong Christian lady from SA says, "they can't smell the flowers from the grave - give 'em their flowers while they can smell 'em!"
~ It is an encouragement to me that just as he has blessed me - I need to try to be someone else's Angel. We may never know just how much those words will bless that person in your life or how much he/she might need them, "for such a time as this."
* * 
1 comment:
Post a Comment