Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: BEGIN (01/06/22)
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TITLE: His Grace Revealed | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn Borga
01/12/22 -
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My face creased into a smile as I anticipated the week that lay ahead while I visited my grandparents’ farm. The expectation of the adventures my cousins and I might have in the woods and fields made it impossible for me to go back to sleep. So I padded softly down the stairs to the kitchen and waited in the darkness for the rest of the household to awaken. Before long, I heard shuffling noises from the downstairs room where my grandparents slept. Grandpa ambled into the kitchen, dressed in his faded denim overalls and dusty work boots. He walked past where I sat partially hidden by the oilcloth-covered table and stood at the entrance door.
I had intended to make my presence known. Before I could speak, Grandpa sank to his knees on the bare linoleum floor. The first rays of sunlight shone through the glass onto his sparse white hair and weathered face as he bowed his head. I silently watched as he whispered prayers in his native tongue. Once he’d finished, he used the kitchen counter to slowly and painfully pull himself to his feet. Then he reached for the skeleton key that hung from a nail on the wall. The lock clicked and the painted wooden door swung on its hinges with a creak. He grabbed his battered straw hat from its hook and stepped out to tend to the livestock.
He never guessed that I’d been watching in the shadows. He didn’t know that the image of his kneeling form would remain forever etched in my mind. Nor would he realize the effect his humble act would have on me. At that moment, the depth of Grandpa’s faith became a legacy. I was too young to explain it in words, but as I witnessed his reverent prayer time, I sensed the authenticity of Grandpa’s walk with God. I knew instinctively the reason for his gentle ways. I knew why he was able to find joy and contentment in his simple life.
During his long life, I would guess that he, like most of us, had known struggles and doubts. But now, when I knew him, he stood on solid ground. I could see that the path he walked was good and right; that it was something worth striving for. The scene I witnessed that day planted a tiny seed in my soul, a faint desire to seek the One who brings peace. It would take years of watering and cultivating by many others before God breathed life into that seed and made it take root and flourish. But it began there in that quiet kitchen where God revealed his grace through an old man’s prayer.
Sometimes the sight of a skeleton key will conjure up the memory of that long-ago morning. I find myself wondering what Grandpa said that day in his conversation with God. Was he giving God praise and thanks for the blessings of life? Was he asking for strength for the day? Did he petition God to guide him and teach him His ways? I wonder if Grandpa had included me in that morning prayer, asking God to prepare my heart to know Him? I wonder.
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I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
1 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NKJV)
The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous. Proverbs 15:29 (NKJV)
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Blessings
Great work.