Monday night was quite a night. Marie Monville spoke at the Naaman Center Spring Banquet at Hershey Farm Restaurant at Strasburg, PA. In 2006, Marie’s then husband committed the horrific crime known around the world as the Nickel Mines Amish School House Tragedy. Marie, who wanted to be simply a good wife and mother was suddenly propelled into world view. She said that in high school she probably would have been voted, “Most likely to be forgotten.”
Marie’s presentation focused on how God walked with her through the darkest and most painful days imaginable. She did not focus on the evil which Satan had inspired but rather on the glorious faithfulness of a heavenly Father who tenderly responded to her anguished cries and entreaties.
I was left with the thought, “How would you know how deep God’s love is unless you went through something deeply painful and found that God’s love was deeper still. And how would you know that God was God of the valleys unless you went through the valley of suffering and found that He truly was with you.” I had wanted to know that “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” But He responds, ” Yes, the Bible tells you of My love, but I want to write my love on the pages of your heart as you go through life’s varied and often painful experiences.
At the end of the evening I was asked to have the closing prayer. Instead I asked Marie to pray over the audience for all those whose hearts were crying out, “Lord, if you could meet Marie in her darkest hour and turn it into light, would you meet me now in my hour of difficulty and transform my mess into a glorious testimony of what God can do and not another account of the devils’ destruction.”
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