When your life with God begins with a miracle at age 11, what is your life with Him like eight years later when you’re in the middle of college, dating, and the busyness of life? That is what I want to learn from my 18, almost 19-year-old, Belgian granddaughter, Elisa, in our hike through the Ardennes mountains.
At age 11 Elisa said to her parents one day, “I don’t know if there is a God, because he never speaks to me.”
Her parents responded, “Why don’t you take your new guitar and go to your room and worship, because God often speaks as we worship him.”
Sometime later Elisa came back from her room with a big smile and stated to her parents, “God spoke to me: He gave me a song, the words and the music.” She played the song as her mother and father listened through their tears.
Shortly thereafter Elisa was assigned to give a talk in school about an object . She informed her parents she would talk about her guitar and play ‘Yankee Doodle.’
Her father said, “Why don’t you play the song that the Lord gave you?”
She responded, “I could never do that; I am the only Christian in my class; everyone would laugh at me.”
Her father then encouraged her to go to her room and pray for boldness.
She immediately went to her room to pray. She was soon joined by her younger sister Ruby, and they joined together in fervent prayer for boldness. After an hour of prayer she informed her parents that she would play her song at school.
On the appointed day after giving her talk about her guitar she stated that she had a song that she plays at her church. Her teacher invited her to play it.
Elisa closed her eyes tightly and sang loudly so she would not lose her courage. When she opened her eyes, the teacher was crying as were many of the students. The teacher said “That is so beautiful; why don’t you bring your guitar every day and we will sing together as a class?”
This became an almost daily ritual for the rest of the school year.
Elisa’s faith grew stronger as the years went by. She composed more music; she produced an album of her music, and she was invited to sing at country music concerts where the secular participants joined in singing, “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.”
This past year has been very demanding. Elisa expects a lot of herself and is very careful and detailed in her work. As a consequence she placed at the top of her class in graphic design college.
However, as we walked together, she admitted that in order to achieve this success, she put everything into her studies and in so doing she sacrificed time with God, her boyfriend and her family.
“Now,” she continued, “I have the satisfaction and acclaim of having done well in college in my first year, but I long for the intimacy of my relationship with Jesus again. It has been over a year since I have written a worship song.”
“I want to open my heart again. I want to find a way to balance my life in the coming year and years so that I don’t push the really important things aside as I did this past year.”
As we walked together, I found myself praying, “Oh, Lord, give Elisa the desire of her heart, and while you’re at it, give me at age 72, the desire of my heart, that we can both find the way to daily nourish our intimacy with you so that You are the inspiration and direction for all we do. “
So I conclude this time with Elisa with the firm conviction that what brought the first miracle brings every miracle, the passionate desperate cry, “Oh God, please ….”
For You did say, “Ask you and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened unto you.”
theexpandingshrink 