Heritage

Yesterday, my mother-in-law told me that she had led her father to the Lord. He had left his wife and family many years ago, when she and her brother and sisters were all little kids. Now he’s in a nursing home in failing health. She has walked the difficult path to forgiveness and grace, and felt that the Lord wanted her to share the gospel with him. Her obedience bore eternal fruit.

It’s a wonderful story in itself, but it’s made more wonderful if you back up and see the larger story it’s a part of. It starts with my parents, or even more fundamentally, with my mother. When she and my father married, she was a believer, but he was a skeptic who thought Jesus was merely a great moral teacher. When I was around 5 years old, he came to faith — largely as a result of her gentle, quiet witness.

Shortly after that, someone invited my parents to a dinner in their home. There would be a speaker there who would explain God’s plan of salvation. After much prayer, my parents decided to invite some friends to come along: my husband’s parents. The two couples had met in prenatal class for our older brothers, and the friendship had blossomed when they found themselves renting apartments in the same duplex after the babies were born. Now both young families had graduated to their own houses, but their friendship continued to grow. My husband’s parents came to the dinner, and gave their lives to Christ there.

The ripple effects of the Holy Spirit’s grace have continued to spread and influence many lives. My marriage, of course, is part of the story, and the lives of my children.

It’s such an encouragement to step back and see this larger redemption story my life is a part of. I’m willing to be a channel for God to continue unfolding it. But I do feel encapsulated by the “Christian bubble” in this season of operating so fully out of our home.

How will He use me?