My young neighborhood friend who is a teenager now was missing from our lives for most of the summer. God sent us a couple other little girls to fill the gap, and I prayed for Beth* and trusted God was continuing to work in her life.
Then suddenly last week, she was back with no explanation for why we hadn’t seen her. I told her I’d missed her, and we took up where we’d left off. I sat on the porch swing and listened to what seemed like inconsequential words as the minutes ticked by. I wondered as I have sometimes before, Lord, am I accomplishing anything here? It seems like I’m having few opportunities to talk about anything important.
I had no answers but continued to listen and pray.
Earlier this week, Beth came again. As she lay on our porch swing, she ended up eventually, after a lot more inconsequential conversation, pouring out her heart to me about some of the hard things she’d been going through during the past year.
I told her that perhaps by allowing her to go through these hard times, God was preparing her, teaching her things that she might be able to use to help others in the future. I told her how God has been doing that in my life as I’ve been going through hard times too—losing our son and having cancer.
Then Beth talked about her faith and how she’s been trying to get back to church again and that she started going to church when she was only seven or eight years old (with a neighbor). I asked her if she had received Jesus into her heart and asked his forgiveness for her sins. She said she had.
When I asked her if she’d been baptized, she said no and didn’t seem to be familiar with the concept. So I explained the symbolism of baptism. Then she began to backpedal a little, saying she wanted to follow God, but she also wanted to live a “normal” teenage life. She said, “I don’t want to be baptized because I might change my mind. Things can change in a heartbeat. “
I knew some of the things she’d been doing that she considered a “normal teenage life” and heard the tug of the world on my young friend. The wonderful message our pastor had preached Sunday on the wrath of God came to mind. (You may think saying a message on the wrath of God is wonderful is an oxymoron, but it isn’t.)
Our pastor wove a story about an incident with his Granny throughout his message, telling us about his wonderful Granny who always had a smile on her face. Then he told us that one day he and his friends had been messing around near his Granny’s bee hives and eventually, poking them with sticks and knocking one of them over.
Pastor Byron only got stung five times, but when he told Granny what had happened, he had never seen her so angry. Her first question was, “Are you all right?”
After he told her he was, she said, “We’ll talk about this later.”
When later came, Granny said, “Byron, do you know why I was so angry?” He said, “Because of the bees. We knocked the hive over and then bees were getting away.”
Granny shook her head and said, “Byron, it wasn’t about the bees.”
I had Beth’s full attention, so I asked her, “Why do you think Granny was so angry?”
She made a couple of guesses, but each time I shook my head. Finally, I told her, “His granny said, ‘It wasn’t about the bees. It was because you could have gotten hurt. It wasn’t good for you to be poking the bee hives with a stick.’”
I added, “And that’s why God is angry about sin, and He doesn’t want us to do the things we know are wrong because they’re not good for us. It’s not because He’s trying to spoil our fun. It’s because He loves us so much, and He knows those things are bad for us.”
Beth sat up on the swing, looking very thoughtful.
“That’s why I think it would be better to make up your mind now to follow Jesus and to be baptized, rather than waiting to see if you might change your mind and go down some other path that would be bad for you.” Then I added quietly, “But it’s your decision, Beth. Think about it.”
When Beth got ready to go, I put my hands on either side of her face and said, “So Beth, I want you to keep these words right in the very front of your mind so that when you’re tempted to do things you know are wrong, you remember that God doesn’t want you to do those things because they’re not good for you! Okay?”
She smiled and nodded. Then I hugged her, told her I loved her, and she went on her way.
I went into the house and told Donn, “Oh my goodness, I’ve been asking God, Am I accomplishing anything in this relationship? And then today, we had such an important conversation, and I know God is at work!”
I thanked God over and over for helping me go on listening when it didn’t seem like anything beneficial was happening so that eventually, in His time, He gave me an opportunity to say things Beth needed to hear.
Father, help us not to grow weary in well doing so that, in due season, we will reap a harvest if we don’t give up. (Galatians 6:9). Fill us with your love which is more patient than we can ever imagine. Amen.
*Name changed