I don’t know if you’re real, but Jesus if you are, I want to know you.
That was it. That was the silent prayer that changed my life. I knew He was there. I could sense His presence above me that day on the hill outside the 3rd grade classrooms at Kyogle Public School. The eternally grumpy Mrs Faulkner stood in front of us, waiting for us to gather into two lines. Salvation prayers don’t take very long. It could be a heartbeat prayer. A gasp.
Above the brick two-story block, below the timber single-story block built like a raised Queenslander with verandahs along the front. Class 3F gathered on the asphalt in two lines. We knew the drill. Sometimes we even had to hold hands. Ugh.
We all gripped our school bags, ports, whatever you called them in New South Wales, because we were about to walk to the Kyogle Swimming Pool for lessons. My friend Kirsty saw a sticker on my bag that said “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven”. It was holographic rainbows and bubble text. It was someone else’s faith up until that day. Until she asked me, are you a Christian?
Yes, [insert previous prayer here], …. [deep breath] I am.
The Bible says you need to declare your faith before God and others. I didn’t realise it that day, but what I said to her was significant. I declared it to her and the Angels rejoiced because my name was written in the Book of Life. It put Satan and his drones on notice.
I just put a target on my back.
I wasn’t alone, though. I had Jesus, an ever present counsellor, friend, Lord and Saviour. My Defender. I was eight years old, maybe nine. With all my childlike understanding, that is a few years of Presbyterian Sunday School and a few years of visiting volunteers teaching religious instruction at school, I trusted Jesus.
They say it takes a village to raise a child. Parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours, friends, school teachers, librarians, reverends, bus drivers, shop keepers, doctors and nosy old ladies in the main street all played a role in my life. On that day, Jesus joined my team and I was in good hands.
At the time, my favourite story from the Bible was Esther. I’m sure it was every little girl’s favourite too. She was lovely and humble, but beautiful and strong. She had a team making her beautiful, giving her beauty treatments and fabulous clothes. The King chose her from the beauty pageant of eligible females like something off Channel 9 last week.
She wasn’t the shallow bimbo that she might have appeared to outsiders, though. She fought for her family and their future and she beat the bad guy. “For such a time as this” still resonates with me as a time when God made the call on my life, when he gave me a purpose and calling for a reason. God has a plan and purpose for everyone’s life. He was the one who knit me together in my mother’s womb.
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