A Change of Heart

May 9, 2007

My heart started beating faster. My hands began to shake. My throat tightened as emotion flooded my soul. Tears sprang to my eyes as my ears could hardly comprehend what they were hearing. This was it! It was the moment I had been hoping, waiting, and PRAYING for!

We had been talking about heaven. I was telling my students about all the amazing things we had to look forward to. When Jesus left this earth, He promised us that He would come back for us, but until then, He'd be in heaven preparing the way for us. I had invited them to use their imaginations to think about all the wonderful surprises God was preparing for us. Lions will run up to us and lick us on the cheek. We'll swim with the turtles and ride on their backs. We'll get to tour the whole universe stopping at the different planets and maybe we'll even touch the sun! We were all getting excited and one of the students said she couldn't wait to go to heaven. My heart was happy to hear them excited and longing to be with Jesus. But then it happened.....

I have a student in my class who, for as long as I have known him, has hated God. He hated him with a deep, burning passion. His desire in life was to grow up and invent a machine that would destroy God and take all His power. Every time he had the chance to express his hatred or share his negative views, he would. So when I saw his hand raised during our exciting discussion about heaven, I cringed. What would would he say this time? Would he ruin the moment for all the other students? But something inside allowed me to answer his hand without thinking twice about the possible repercussions. The words that came out of his mouth were ones I never thought I'd hear: “After listening to all these wonderful things,” he said, “I think I want to love Jesus, too.”

My heart leaped in my chest and I grasped for the correct words to say. I imagined the smile that those words had brought to the face of Jesus as the courts of heaven rang with praise. I wanted to cry, jump for joy, and hug him all at the same time. I've never felt such a joyous and elated feeling.

One might think that this was just a spur-of-the-moment, hasty decision, but if you know this child and if you hear the things that he is now saying and if you could see the immediate change his decision has had on his countenance and disposition, you would know that this truly is the work of God Almighty.

Moments after his life-changing declaration, he said, “I even feel better already.” It was as if a huge burden had been lifted from him. After fighting against God for so long, I could see the peace that he was experiencing by choosing to follow God. And immediately he began to talk and I knew that conviction had finally taken place in his heart. “It's important that we read the Bible,” he said, “Because Satan is going to try to trick us and we need to be ready. In fact, I think Revelation is the most important book in the Bible because that will prepare us for the end so we are ready for Jesus to come back. But I only have bible stories at home. I'm going to need to get a real Bible so I can begin to study the book of Revelation.” At reading time, he even took the Bible out of the library and began reading Revelation. He's only 8 years old, but he's very intelligent and he understands much of what he has read so far. He continued on like this through out the day. He must have come up to my desk 20 times to tell me little things that he was discovering. For example, he looked at our memory verse for the week which says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” and he said, “I think that is the most true statement I have ever read.” It's just amazing – a complete 180 degree turn. At one point in time, he said that he wanted Jesus to come back next week, if possible, or maybe the week after that. I told him that there were many people who didn't know about Jesus yet, and we need to share Jesus with all those people before He can come back and get us. A few moments later, he came up to my desk and said, “Maybe, when we all grow up, we can move to different countries and tell all those people about Jesus so we can go to heaven sooner.” It just made my heart sing, because that's the reason I'm here. I want the world to know about Jesus, and it delights me greatly to know that at least one precious soul has discovered Him this year.

I never expected this to happen. It was so easy at times to want to give up and assume that he was a hopeless cause. All I hoped for was that a seed would be planted deep within that would one day sprout in 20 or 30 years........but my faith was obviously lacking. We say it all the time, but today a little boy taught me that nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, is impossible for God. He can turn water into wine, and He can turn a heart of stone into a heart on fire for God!

I was blessed today. I was also reminded that God doesn't need people – sinful human beings – to do His work for Him, but He uses us because He wants us to be able to share in the beautiful experiences such as I had today. He wants us to be able to rejoice with Him when another soul is led to the foot of the throne. I am nothing on my own, and God doesn't even need me, but I am honored and delighted that He allowed me the privilege of being a part of this miracle today!