I grew up in a mostly non-religious household as a young child, but my mom let me go to church with a friend from school, mostly because they had a bus that picked up kids and brought them to and from their homes to the church.
At first, it was just a way for me to get out of the house each Sunday but after a little while I started interacting with the other “bused” kids and even made a friendship here and there with the “church” kids.
I still remember the name of our bus route leaders, Mr. Gary, and Ms. Jan.
I hope he and his fiancé, who used to work with him on the bus route, find out one day how much of an influence they had in my life even though back then it was not noticeable at all.
I only spent maybe a year of my young life attending church there.
My mom got a scholarship that paid for one semester of their private school when I was in the 7th grade. So, for a short time I was taught about Jesus and our heavenly Father. I was not taught anything about the role of the Holy Spirit until much later in life.
Shortly after I left that church and school, I was placed in the foster care system.
Amazingly the things I learned about in that church and at their school stuck with me.
There was this one verse that stood out to me the most, it still has great impact each time I think about it or run across the verse today.
Psalm 68: 5-6 reads, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.” (NIV)
I will never forget how reading those two verses moved me the first time I read the words.
I would sneak my Bible in bed with me at night and re-read those words over and over. I would look up and say to God, “Is this true? I do not have a father so does that mean You are my Father?”.
Although I did not hear God’s answer audibly, I did sense His answer was an affirmative one.
I will not sit here and tell you how great my life was after I had “the talk” with my newly found Father, because trust me, ain’t nobody got time to repeat bad history LOL. But, I will tell you that had that friend not invited me to church, had Bro. Gary and his lovely fiancé not got up early every Sunday morning and showed up Wednesday nights to pick up a scrawny, pigeon-toed little girl from the hell she lived in every day to take her to church so she could hear about Jesus and read in the Bible about a God who wanted to be her daddy here on earth, I would probably not be here today writing this devotion.
You might think that what you are doing for God does not matter much, but I implore you to not stop.
There just might be one person out there, like me, who needs someone like you, to help them meet their heavenly Father too.
#bethechurch
