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Years ago, I wrote down a testimony to email to my friends. I recently came across it again as I was preparing to launch my new blog. I’m sharing it again today to remind you that the Lord is near, even in our times of deepest desperation and fear. He knows our hurt, pain and struggle. Take heart, He has overcome the world!
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NIV
Originally Written 11/01/08
Dear Friends,
Yesterday evening (Halloween) was one of the scariest times of my life. But God is faithful and good. Let me share…
I came home from work just before 6pm. My kids were playing in the yard and Tamsey greeted me by telling me she had to step inside quickly. I said hey to the kids and told them I needed to use the restroom and then I’d be out to play with them. I stepped inside for maybe 2 minutes and then back outside to enjoy the evening with my children. When I came outside, Tamsey was calling for the kids and looking for them. They were both gone.
I assured her that they were likely just hiding, or had possibly stepped inside the house. We continued to call for them and look around the yard. In a matter of moments it was clear that they were not hiding and that something was wrong. Tamsey began to run around the neighborhood screaming for the children. I ran through the woods behind my house and alerted every neighbor I could find that my precious children were missing. I called 911 and alerted the police. It was surreal.
I jumped in my car and drove around the neighborhood stopping every car and pedestrian telling them my children’s names and where they lived. All the while, I am talking to my Heavenly Father asking Him to hide them in the shadow of His wings. I asked that I would stay in Faith and not move into panic. His Word began to flood into my mind like I can’t explain. Scriptures I seldom quote and didn’t know that I totally remembered came into my thoughts. ‘Neither height, nor depth, nor present, nor future….. can separate us from His love.’ I heard the Lord’s voice in the one ear, and the screams of my wife running the streets in the other. It was a defining moment. Images of my children being kidnapped, or floating in some small pond began to flood my mind as the enemy tried to intimidate me. I felt my strength leave me. I have often experienced spiritual warfare and intense battles with the enemy on Halloween. I have had demonic encounters and nightmares, but never had I experienced this level of attack. I began to rebuke the enemy and praise the Lord as I ran through the woods near my house. My sandals flew off as I ran in a panic and thorns and splinters sliced through my hands and feet. I was desperate and I was starting to slip into terror.
When I had emerged back through the woods for the second time I hear yells from my neighbor… ‘We have them, they are ok!’.
There stood my next door neighbor who had just recently moved in. He had my kids by the hand. About 10 other neighbors were there in my yard. Ella and Eoin greeted me with “Daddy, there you are!”. I fell to my knees and wept as I held my children. Only a moment later Tamsey came running up the street from searching for them. My children called out ‘Mommy, we found you’. (Click Here To Read My Post ‘About This Time Tomorrow’)
They were safe and all was well. They did not even know that we were worried. They had wandered through the woods behind our house and then connected to a street on the other side. They walked down the street together and ended up playing in a neighbor’s yard before they were found. As we cried they began to cry, not sure of what had happen. Ella saw that my hands and feet were bleeding from the thorns in the woods and then realized that we had been searching for them frantically. They repented for wandering away and told us over and over that they would never do it again. We didn’t have to chastise them or tell them how wrong they were for running off. They saw our desperate love and they repented.
So, as I write this to you I have thorns in my hands and feet. I’ve been pulling them out all morning. (I didn’t feel like messing with them last night). It wasn’t until I walked with my family, hand in hand, back to our house after such a traumatic experience that I began to feel the cuts in my hands and feet. I had not felt them before. My love for my kids propelled me to do whatever I had to do to rescue them. Though it was their disobedience that put us in the position we were in, that was not important. What was important was that I loved them and wanted them with me, safe and secure.
Jesus’s love for us compels Him. Even in your disobedience He pursues You because He knows You’re not completely safe until you are in His arms, dwelling at His house, enjoying His protection and love. Jesus, pleads on our behalf because of His great love. The wounds in my hands and feet remind me of my pursuit and love of my children, not of their disobedience. Maybe for the first time I, in some very small way, understand that His wounds do the same. (Click Here To Read My Post ‘He’s On Every Page of Your Story’)
My children are fine and Tamsey is well. Eoin is sitting beside me eating M&M’s and Ella is running through the house being a princess. Tamsey is here with me drinking a cup of coffee and I am typing this to you because this is how I process things. I know there will be a song to come from this. It will be a light of hope to come from a very dark moment. That’s what He does. He causes even the night to shine as day!
Thank you for reading my testimony. This is how I overcome. It’s because of Jesus blood and it’s because of my testimony. Can you imagine how upset the devil is right now that my kids are safe with me and I am able to share the love of God with all of You? I’m enjoying every single minute of it! (Click Here To Read My Post “3 Ways to Better Tell Your Story”)
Grateful beyond what I can express,
Nathan
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