It was the fifth day of Vacation Bible School, it was prayer time for the staff and we were meeting in the office before classes started. For some reason Pastor David had not arrived yet, but I felt we couldn’t wait any longer. As was our custom, I began by sharing a story of someone who had encouraged me in my walk with the Lord. On this morning I shared how my younger brother on many occasions would call me up and check on me, asking if there was a prayer need or just to share with me from the Word as he felt God had told him to. He was my younger brother and the one who had led me to the Lord.
He also was my prayer partner and a friend—God would put it on his heart to call me, and I really appreciated him. By necessity, I did not have his number, so he told me, “Just tell God and He will tell me and I’ll call you.” He always did within a matter of a few minutes or hours. I shared how important his words, spoken and prayed out, were to me. I then asked for prayer requests and we had just started to pray when Pastor David walked in the door.
I looked up and he motioned for me to come with him to his office. I could see whatever he needed to share was not good news. Excusing myself and asking someone else to handle the prayer requests for that morning, I followed him into his study. I thought he would tell me his dad who was fighting cancer or my mother with her deteriorating health had taken a turn for the worse. Not wanting him to say, I quickly ran a list out to him before he could speak fearing all the worst, but he just kept shaking his head no. As my list lengthened, I knew before He spoke, what I dreaded to hear was the truth.
You see a few short weeks before my younger brother had called me to tell me he thought he was dying. He just wanted to tell me that he loved me and wanted me to tell our family that he loved all of them too. He also wanted me to tell those of them who didn’t know the Lord the message of salvation. To make a long story short, I encouraged him to go to the local emergency room where they told him there was nothing wrong with him. Now, three weeks later, they were wrong and unfortunately, he had been correct. He had passed away with fatal cardiac arrhythmia.
The next few minutes were, spent praying and asking the Lord for His perspective. Knowing I needed to complete what was to be our last day of VBS, I let the teachers know what had happened and asked if they would please give me a few moments alone. I knew my brother would want nothing less than for VBS to continue as scheduled. I went to the sanctuary sat at the piano played and prayed for a short while. I felt a presence sit beside me. Quietly a head was lain on my shoulder. No words were spoken just a quiet sharing of hearts. I had my eyes closed and continued playing “My Life is in You Lord,” while I asked God to give me what I needed to finish the day well, with our kids.
That morning I planned to share the story of my younger brother leading me to the Lord with the children and now I was really going to need God’s strength. I had wanted to tell them not to worry that they were just children sharing the message of salvation with their friends and family and that God would and could use them to speak for Him. Not sure who sat beside me, I eventually opened my eyes to see who had entered my silent world of grief. Wouldn’t you know it and wasn’t it just like God to send one of His sweet young Christians. Beautiful blue eyes, dark auburn hair, attached to a loving face, which reflected her heart. She just came and sat quietly. She had stepped boldly into the abyss of great loss and with wisdom beyond her years said nothing but spoke volumes. For me it was very special that someone as young as she was would be so bold to enter that quiet place of raw pain.
We are blessed with angels all around us who carry the message of God’s sustaining power and love. Sometimes He lets us be the messengers and sometimes all we have to do is just sit silently. She will always be a treasure in my heart and she was raised up to serve and love the Lord in this church. Thanks again Nicole and a special thanks, to all of you who taught her over those years and prayed for her to be all that God planned for her to be. All of you make a difference for God.
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