A Changed Life

Rose's poem, the one Kim at Hireath shared last Friday, made me think about another little girl. This little girl heard the Gospel for the first time when she was nine years old. She attended public school but was sent to religious education classes at the local Catholic church after school. At religious education, this little girl was taught from the Baltimore catechism, memorizing questions and answers in order to pass an oral examination by a priest of the Catholic church. One day, the lay teacher who taught the little girl's class, sighed deeply and laid down her copy of the Baltimore catechism. "None of this really matters," she finally said, "I am going to tell you what does really matter." And this teacher proceeded to tell her class about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

For that little girl, the world turned upside down. She knew instantly that what the teacher said was true! She was an extremely shy and quiet little girl and never said a word to the teacher...or her parents...or her friends...or her brothers or sisters. But she couldn't sleep for a very long time that night because she was mulling over this earth-shattering news. Her outward life didn't change but her inward life did. But the religious education teacher never knew. Neither did the mother of a friend of the little girl who gave her a Bible and told the little girl of the Gospel again a couple of years later.

The little girl carried this special information within her for many more years before she really began to grow in it. In fact, she was a young mother before she really began to study that Bible with any intentionality or understanding that those words are the Word of God. And it was more years before she shared the Gospel with anyone.

I am that little girl and I am so very thankful for God's working through the people in my life who understood His command to

Tell the whole World about Jesus,

Everywhere you go,

as Rose says. And I try to remember when I am discouraged that I may never know who really hears the words about Jesus that I may say or what the impact in their lives may be just as those two women never knew how their words affected my life.

Rebecca is gathering posts related to the Gospel every Tuesday and Friday in the month of October. Go visit her for the guidelines and to see the links she's already posted.