Pink, with Gold Floors!!!

March 19, 2010, 11:00 am
From the moment our children could talk Aaron has had them in his lap telling them about the Lord. It is regular conversation.
“How big is God?” And then Aaron would place a small thing in his hand and say “You are thiiiiis little to God. But He loves you sooo much.” They giggle at Aaron. But they get the point. God is big.
“Is God strong? Is He magic?” They ask over a sandwich at dinner. Aaron would say “Everything He says happens.” The children sit dreaming of a God that is all powerful.
“Are you older than God, Daddy? When is God’s birthday?” Aaron chuckles and explains that God is eternal. He just always has been, and always will be.
This past year we have noticed an “awakening” in Mary. I say awakening because that is the only term I know to use…it isn’t something “religious” it is my own word as a mommy. I have noticed that as the devotions at night are being told, she looks hard at Aaron. She would sit there as poised as an ostridge, her gangly legs going in all directions. She looks a mess by the end of the day…but I noticed her attention and comprehension had changed. She was actually listening. That steady little look that appeared to be so grumpy at times was her thinking about what daddy was saying.
It was becoming increasingly evident that she knew more than we thought when she would answer questions. Her accuracy was great. We were holding ourselves back a little because just knowing the answers didn’t mean that she was yet old enough or understanding enough to apply the truths of the gospel to her own life. We were waiting.
Months past, many months, the same drill. Sunday morning Service, Sunday school, and then Wednesday night, and devotions every night there wasn’t church. Mary would have her restless moments during all of them, but then you would see her looking at her father with that same intense look. Her mouse like ears tuned into the message.
Aaron and I had prayed a very intense prayer long ago, about 18 months ago. Mary was making it very hard for us, as parents. We thought that if any of our children would “buck” the family, or our faith, or our way of living, it would be Mary. She was so bull headed and just didn’t seem to care that your heart was breaking. Aaron and I took our daughter to the Lord in prayer asking Him to intervene before she spent her life making poor decisions. That she would be yielding to the Lord.
“Daddy, will I go to heaven?” A little girl with fuzzy blonde hair looked into her fathers eyes.
The first thing you want to do with a child is to make them secure, to make them feel loved, and that the monsters will never harm her. You want to look into the eyes of our child and say “Of course Hun….” But you can’t. You would be making your own faith seem like a puke of an idea you took up because you needed a hobby, or fell in love with a fairy tale, and you go to the meetings on Sundays and Wednesdays. The hard line of real faith is when you have to draw it for your children.
“If you trust Jesus as your Saviour, and ask Him to forgive your sins, He WILL save you.” This was asked to us by our little mop top at any given moment….In the car, in the church, over macaroni and cheese. It was tempting to push her and say…”You wanna get saved!?!? Do you want to now!?!?” Any child would see it as..’Ooooo I want to please Mommy, I want to make her happy, so I will say this little prayer and then I will be okay….and mommy will like me’.
What really tightens the screws is when your almost 5 year old can articulate Hell. Your heart aches because you understand the reality of life. You understand that in the end of this life there is such a place for those who never believed. You know that the age of innocence is closing for your daughter. She is getting old enough to put the pieces together. She is reaching an age of accountability for her actions…
“Where is Hell? Is there fire there?” Aaron would hold her in his arms and tell her in calm easy language about what the Bible says, he wouldn’t scare her with threatening language. He would simply inform her and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Many times Aaron would pass by me in tears because he had to reveal even to a child the truth of what awaits those that never belonged to the Lord.
These questions were only proving that she was reaching a time and an age that she was understanding more and more.
What made it all clear that she knew and understood was the way she talked about it to Aaron and I.
“Jesus died for our sins.” She would say
“Mary do you know what sin is?”
“Yes, it is the bad things we do.”
“Do you have sin?”
“Yes, everybody does.”
“What are we supposed to do Mary?” Now let me tell you, we ask different questions all the time….and she would initiate the conversations. We didn’t want this to be a memorized drill session.
“ We need to ask Jesus to come into our hearts…to keep us from the fire.”
“Where is the fire Mary?”
“In Hell. “ She would answer simply…
“Does Jesus love you Mary?”
“Yes..” She would look at you like you were crazy, cuz Jesus loves everybody!
These little moments of conversation were peppered throughout the weeks. Aaron and I committed her once again to prayer.
About 2 months ago she started being more pointed with her questions and thoughts. We knew it was close.
In family devotions one night Mary was getting terribly fidgety. Aaron’s subject matter wasn’t anything more than the same “Victor VS loser” story…I motioned for Mary to come and sit in my lap. I tilted her back with me in the chair. She was still listening to the story. Aaron sensed her uneasiness. He started into the gospel message. Believe me, no scare tactics…just the love of Christ…Mary was very restless.
The evening closed. It was the next morning that the spiritual wheels started to turn. Aaron was on vacation. He was running errands in town. Mary came up to me and asked some questions. The same questions, but she was asking about salvation.
I cut her off at one part of something she was saying on the matter. “Honey, are you saved?”
She sighed….”I think I am.”
“How do you know?”
A sigh again….”Mommy will you help me, help me to be saved.”
There it was, the question. Like the light at the end of a dreary tunnel…as clear as Cinderella’s slipper on a velvet cushion….she wanted the gift, she was reaching….I knew Aaron was close in town…I knew he would want to be here….I looked at Mary.
“Do you want to talk to Daddy?” I wasn’t putting her off…I was really trying to see what she would say with a mild distraction. She nodded.
I picked up the phone and called Aaron…I made a brief statement to Aaron that Mary needed to talk.
“Daddy?” Mary never was good on a phone. “Daddy…can you come and talk to me?”
Daddy on the other line was having a hard time hearing her because as usual she got shy on the line.
Mary handed the phone to me. “Hey, Honey, just wondering if you could come home, Mary wants to talk to you.” Without saying more, Aaron knew what I was stabbing at.
“I’ll be right there.”
I hung the phone up, and turned to Mary…it was very hard to not just trot her off to a room and guide her through a conversion. I wanted this to be real, and if indeed it was we would see when we switched parents and let her lead again.
“Daddy will be home in a minute to talk to you.” Mary grinned. Soon Susanna came by. “Hey wanna play dollhouse!?!?”
The girls ran off…it was only about 8 or so minutes before Aaron stepped in the door. Since Mary wasn’t there I gave him a brief synopsis of the conversation. He went to the girl’s room. My suspiciouns were correct. She was sincere. Upon entering the bedroom, where Mary was playing dollhouse, she asked Daddy to talk to her.
I wasn’t wanting to stop anything or be distracting…I simply kept my place at the computer as Daddy and daughter went into the bedroom.
They went into his office. (the following is taken from Daddy’s account)
“Daddy I want to get saved.” She sat on a stack of her daddy’s reference books.
He briefly went over the gospel, reviewing sin, and that sin keeps us from heaven. He told her that Hell was a real place that Jesus didn’t want her to go to. He explained that Jesus loved her very much and died on the cross, and rose again…so she could go to heaven. He told her all she had to do was to ask Jesus to forgive her, Save her, and believe that He can do it.
“Mary, would you like to ask Jesus to forgive you and save you?”
“Yes, Can you help me?” She smiled at her daddy, trusting him to lead the way.
“Okay, let’s pray.” He went on to help lead in prayer. Mary was reverting back into shy mode. She wanted daddy to lead in prayer…as she followed, speaking words that expressed her feelings and faith in the Lord.
Through the miracle of faith our little baby, the one we asked God for…the one that took 4 years to get…completed her second birth, into the family of God.
Aaron asked her. “Mary, if you died today…where would you go?”
“I would go to heaven, because Jesus saved me.” Aaron was extatic. He came out of the room weeping. Tears of joy were in his eyes. Mary bounded down the hallway to see her best friend Moe.
Aaron followed to make sure that Moses wasn’t confused in what happened. As I came around the corner I saw Moses embracing his baby sister.
Susie was in the classroom sticking legos together. Mary looked in
“I got saved.” Mary beamed over the baby gate at her younger sibling. Susie cocked an eyebrow.
“Wellllll That’s silly.” She said a lego in each hand.
Very conscientious of Mary’s easily bruised feelings we were quick to correct our even more sensitive Susie…We all grinned like Barney the dinosaur characters at Susie and said in a chipper voice…”No, it’s a good thing to be saved!”
Susie never moved…only nailed on a smile as fake as Dolly Parton’s fingernails….
“Wellllll then it’s WONDERFUL!” she grinned, still clutching the toys in her hands.
Aaron and I were so close to laughing both from the silliness of the obvious, oblivious Susie, and our Mary trusting the Saviour…Aaron and I shared a precious glance as we left the hallway where Moe and Mary were still talking about the decision made…the last words that will ring in my ears were these….mary who was talking about heaven…and HER mansion….
“Yep, and mine….will be pink, with Gold floors.”