On Saturday, May 9th, my friend Yoko found herself with a deep, compelling urge to pray for the life of her son. Since Yoko's son, Daichi, is on active duty in Iraq, she obeyed. She prayed all Saturday, and all Sunday, and all Monday. On Tuesday, she found out with the rest of the nation that a soldier at the end of his third tour of duty had gone on Monday to a mental health clinic in Iraq where soldiers went to receive counseling for combat stress, and shot and killed five other American soldiers. They were all, I think, soldiers with Daichi's unit. Daichi was not harmed.
There is no doubt in Yoko's mind (nor mine!) that the Holy Spirit had told her to pray for just this reason. Yoko and her husband are Christians, but none of their children are. When we found out that Daichi was on his way to Iraq, we all felt a sense of urgency to pray that God would put believers in Daichi's way, and use this experience overseas to bring Daichi to Himself. We all believe that this young man was spared because of his mother's prayers.
But that brings up an interesting question. If God wanted to spare Daichi, why not just go ahead and spare Daichi? Why all the drama? Why the requirement that his mother expend herself in prayer for something God was planning to do anyway? This question has been asked a lot through the centuries, with varying degrees of wisdom applied to the answer. In this particular instance I have only a glimmer of answer, and it's that if Yoko had not known so clearly that Daichi was in some kind of danger, she and the rest of us would not have seen so very clearly God's gracious salvation from it. God knew the end of the story before the beginning, but He wanted to make sure we saw that, and knew Him for who He is.
Daichi does not yet know this story. I have been encouraging Yoko to tell him, and the sooner the better. She has committed herself to do so, and wants to take her time with the computer to make sure she expresses herself in words that cannot fail to be understood. When she does, perhaps Daichi will comprehend at last that while he may not be interested in God, God is definitely interested in him.
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Favorite verses:
- Prov 30:8-9: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, `Who is the LORD?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
- Rom 8:38-39: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Ps 119:68: You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.
- Eph 3:16-19: I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
About Me
- Spud
- I am: A wife, mother, employer and employee, rabid reader, eager Bible studier, cat-lover, toddler-amuser, round person, and have no particular theological category.
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