GOOD SEED ALWAYS GROWS.

When my husband studied medicine, we always kept Saturday afternoon for a family occasion. We bicycled to many of the beautiful areas surrounding Adelaide, enjoying the exercise and fun with our children. Often we were accompanied by Jim a fellow student, his wife and little toddler, Jimmy.

We’d sit by a stream while the children played, threw pebbles into the stream, tossed a bal,l or gathered plants and mosses for miniature gardens. Sitting on the grassy banks, we parents had long discussions on spiritual values, supported by our frequent prayer for these two good friends and their little child, Jimmy.

In due time, the two men graduated, and Dr Jim his wife and Jimmy went to Darwin where Jim practised medicine. The aboriginal people valued his kindness and compassion. We were saddened when we heard that Dr Jim died of a heart attack on the eve of leaving for Papua New Guinea, planning medical care to many needy.

We lost contact with the mother and son, but not long after, I answered a phone call. It was Jimmy, now a man. When I invited him to join us over a Sunday lunch, he told us this remarkable story.

‘My life was empty and purposeless, as I turned from one disillusioning experience to another. I was discouraged and dissatisfied . One morning I went into the room where Mother kept all Dad’s books after he died. I took down his Phillip’s translation of the new Testament, noting that the book had been given from the friends of medical training. I read it right through.

I saw myself as a hopeless, helpless sinner, knowing how much I needed forgiveness and cleansing of the Lord Jesus. No one told me; I just knew. I felt the peace of God flow into my heart, even as I read.

Soon after, Jim met Christians who offered him warm fellowship and stable friendship, while showing him how to study his bible.

This experience greatly encouraged us. We could not convert the small Jimmy now grown to manhood. But the blowing -like-the-wind Spirit of God flowed into the life of this young man, turning a rebel into a family-of-God person. Our part was extremely minute- but we learned again that a sovereign God acts in love, transcends all time, circumstances, and distance to bring a once-small child, playing with our children on the banks of a stream to be a mature man in Christ, usable and fit for the Master’s use.

Be encouraged!