Sunday, 1st 1956…the day God spoke…the day that changed me forever…but let me go back a few weeks. 

My dad has decided to sell our home but this entailed my family living in a hotel for three months while our new house was being built. 

My room in the hotel was at the back of the building, a small room with a window facing north. 

I was fifteen years old, a lonely teenager with few friends but… I had a deep emptiness inside that not even a friend could fill. 

One morning before school, in my desperation, I knelt at my bedside, with the warmth of the sun on my back, and I prayed. I had no idea how to pray so I prayed the only words I knew…the Lord’s Prayer. 

God was listening. He heard my heart, not my words. 

A few months later, the answer came…not in neon lights or a booming voice. It came at an Easter camp, organised for the young people in our area by the leaders of my church denomination…at a seaside resort, under canvas…rough and rustic. 

Our meeting place was a marquee tent…the floor, the field grass…our seating, rows of hard, uncomfortable chairs. Our preacher was a short man of Scandinavian origin, his subject taken from Isaiah 53. The title of his message was,”I wore my oldest shirt”!

It was Sunday, April 1…April Fools’ Day on the secular calendar but…not for me. I have no recollection of his sermon…not the words…not the content… not the point of what he said but… the Holy Spirit was drawing me. After the message, at the preacher’s invitation, I knelt on the rough field grass at my chair and allowed the Spirit to finish what He started. 

I don’t know what the Holy Spirit said. I don’t know what He did but…I stood up in that marquee tent a changed person. The deep inner loneliness was gone. In its place was a peace, a certainty that I was new inside, a joy that made no sense except that I knew I was a different person. 

The Bible tells me what had happened in those moments on my knees. 

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was “in Christ”.  I belonged to Jesus. I was a new person. My old life had gone. 

“Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” …Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.”

‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬, ‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was born again…of the Holy Spirit. I was born into God’s kingdom. 

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬, ‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I was alive. God raised me to new life from sin and death because of His mercy. He didn’t snuff me out because of my sin. Instead, He answered my prayer and made me His own beloved daughter. He gave me His love, His joy, and His peace…a lasting legacy that has never left me…not even in the darkest moments of my life…

Wow! Did I know it! I was so filled with joy that I could not stop talking about what God had done. 

Seventy years have come and gone since that day…seventy years of learning to follow Jesus…of failing, falling, and getting up again, wiping the dust off my knees, the guilt of my soul, and going on. 

In those seventy years, my story has many episodes, many times that God has spoken…in clear words…in my spirit, words that rebuked…explained…redirected…even forgave, comforted and reassured me after I  had fallen…hard…!

There are two promises I hold dear, promises that have steadied me in dark times…times of failure, loss, rejection, betrayal, deep hurt, and despair. 

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭28‬-‭29‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Nothing happens without God’s purpose…

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God always finishes what He started. 

And so, the journey into my new life began. Was I an “April Fool” on that day? A thousand times “No!”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

“This famous quote comes from the American missionary Jim Elliot. He penned it in his journal in October 1949, years before he was martyred while attempting to share the gospel in Ecuador.” (Source: Google AI)

To be continued