April 7, 2014

Reflections

For many years church had not been a part of my life. I had been raised in an Adventist home, attended church school, and had been baptized at an early age. When I was 18, I left home, left town, and left my previous life. I made lots of bad choices, even spent time in jail.

But now I was happily married and enjoying life. I liked going for walks, especially the loop by the Grays River. On one of these treasured walks, I kept noticing a huge rock about halfway up a long driveway, but never walked up to get a closer look. I wondered if it was a burial place for a pet, or perhaps a memorial of another kind. My curiosity finally got the best of me, and I walked up the driveway to investigate. What I saw surprised me. It was an engraving on the rock—a Bible quote that read:

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).

Engraved along with the words was a picture of a soaring eagle. It touched my heart, and I decided to read it from my own Bible. I often saw eagles on my walk—there was even a nest in a high tree. I felt as if God was speaking to me, calling me back to His house of worship.31 1 5

Hurrying home, I kept repeating “Isaiah 40:31.” I was afraid I would forget where the scripture was located. Grabbing my Bible off the shelf, I finally located the text for myself. Soon after, I felt impressed to look for the local Adventist church. When I told my husband of my decision, he said, “If that is what you want to do, you’d better do it!”

About two weeks later, with much apprehension, I finally opened the door of the Cathlamet Seventh-day Adventist Church. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked at the banner hanging on the rostrum near the pulpit. My text was there—the quote from Isaiah 40:31, complete with a soaring eagle! I felt as though I had truly come home. After church I mentioned the banner to the pastor and asked how long it had been hanging there. His reply startled me. “My wife hung it there a couple weeks ago.” It was just about the time I saw it carved on the rock.

Oh, God’s perfect timing!

Some time passed before I had an opportunity to again walk the Grays River loop. I was eager to see the rock that had started the wonderful change in my life. I walked up the driveway with great anticipation. But I was in for another surprise. The rock had other Bible texts, but my text in Isaiah was nowhere to be seen! How could that happen? It had been engraved into the rock! How could it be covered over? Even the beautiful soaring eagle had been erased.

I eventually talked to the woman who lived at the farmhouse at the end of the long driveway. She told me that her husband had the stone put there with Bible verses and a cross, a cross—not an eagle.

“Did you cover the original Isaiah text? How were you able to do that when it had been engraved with so much detail?” I asked.

She looked at me, astonished. “The rock is as it has always been—the text you mention was never there!”

But it was there—the Lord put it there just for me.

If God can engrave Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone, He can engrave a special text to lead a wayward child back home.

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