God Sighting!

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of getting to lead Vacation Bible School (VBS) at my church. I had a group of four girls and boys, and man were they sweet. The church was completely decorated for this year's theme: Weird Animals. Right when you walked in, there was a wall covered completely in a jungle mural. Each day during snack time, we would ask the kids how they had seen God that day (hint the name, God Sightings). Even those these little kids couldn't read or really understand the big concept, they had some pretty elaborate God Sightings. Many of them saw God in the car, through their pets, or when we were worshiping. Each day, we wrote each of their God Sightings on a sticker and let them stick it to the jungle wall. By the end of the week, we had a wall covered in God Sightings. It really was such a cool experience.


So as I was talking to my youth group leader a few days ago over dinner, I realized that I have had a major God Sighting over the past year. God had put a young man in my life who really challenged my faith. He was a self proclaimed atheist and it's safe to say we were always arguing. We clashed heads on everything. In history class, our classmates always said that whatever he said, I simply said the opposite despite my real opinion (this was not true, but our true opinions were polar opposites). During the last semester this past year, God once again placed him in my life. The two of us were put in the same lunchroom (this school has no cafeteria, so we had lunchrooms) for the remaining part of the school year. So now, not only was this boy in every academic class of mine, I now ate lunch with him, (I literally had a 45 minute break from him the entire day.) God was clearly sending me some type of message.

Each day, he questioned my faith. He confronted me with science and tried to prove that there is no God. For days, this was all we talked about. We debated politics, morals, anything and everything. This just made me dig deeper and deeper into my faith. I confronted him with verses and stories. I showed him scenarios and tales of atheists who studied the Bible and could not prove it wrong.

Long story short, this boy really challenged my faith. He pushed and pushed me. He said things that he knew would make me angry. He really pushed my buttons.

After all that, you're probably expecting for some dramatic ending. That after all that I can come to tell you that he changed his ways. From what I know, he is still not a believer. But the good news is, I think I gave him quite a few things to think about. I presented facts and stories that really proved my point. I've prayed and prayed that his heart will change, maybe even just a little bit.

I know that it is not my job to save people, that is Jesus' job. However, I also know that it is my job to convey the word of Christ, to help people along with my understanding of this world. My prayer is that God speaks through me and uses me to help the people who are in need.

Miracles can indeed happen.

Best wishes,
Grace