Because Someone Was Praying

We walked across the lawn of the little white Methodist church in Rebersburg, two unlikely souls, Ruth, an Amish woman, wife of Abe, a spunky man who would tease me often about his Amish fits, and a mama to at least 10.  Me, a wife of a steady man, mama of two (at the time), who had plunged herself into more trouble over two decades than I care to recount.  It's still a wonder to me that God reached down and pulled me out.  Amazing, Hard-to-Believe Grace.  My grandma's funeral had just concluded and we were moving to assemble in the Hall for a meal.

She quietly said as we walked, "You know, Angie, we prayed for you."

We moved in step with one another as I glanced at her, not understanding.  She went on to tell me about the day we left, the day my mom and I moved to another town.  My parents' impending divorce was becoming a reality.

As we walked, Ruth's words rang in my ears, We prayed for you, Angie.

At this time of deep sorrow and loss, the end of my earthly relationship with my grandma, God was giving me a sweet gift that reached far down into the soul.  Knowing someone was praying over my life was a reminder from my Father that no matter how the circumstances appeared when I was little, He was prompting people to pray.

I have no idea what they prayed, but I know the prayers of a faithful woman avail much.  I was 5.  If my life from the age of 5 to 22 were to run on a movie screen, you would never have guessed there was power in prayer.  I lived in direct disobedience to God and His Word and the sporadic visits to my grandma's church throughout my childhood seemed to have little affect on my life when I went back home.

But God.

At the age of 22, He pulled me out.  I can see now, looking back, how He tenderly drew me and wooed me with the love of a Father over years, patiently waiting for His runaway daughter to come home.  My story is not unique.  I've sat and listened to testimony after testimony of women, whose God loved them and pulled them out of lives of sin and despair, despite their best efforts to run in the opposite direction.

So thankful that someone was praying.  So thankful that our God was covering my parents and me at a time when things must have looked so very bleak to onlookers.  So thankful that He draws us, based on nothing we do, but by His grace alone and for His great name.

Consider your calling brother, brothers, not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong:  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, (why?)
So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus... 
Cor. 1:26-30a