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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FRESH START (01/05/17)
“Come close, I’ll tell you a story.” Grandma whispered"

Grandma was weak and frail. We were all gathered for the inevitable. But, why call me out? I leaned in to hear her fading voice.

“Sit here,” she patted the bed. “I was 4 or 5 when...”

I reluctantly obeyed and determined to be attentive to ‘the story’ I knew well. A new year and a fresh start for her dad’s old dilapidated church. A huge revival with a visiting preacher to bring people to the always-empty church. A freaky tornado hit, but everyone was saved. It played through my mind before she started.

“The revival would start at eleven pm, Saturday, on New Year’s Eve. The church would bring the new year in fresh and Dad wanted everything perfect. He and your great-grandma spent weeks preparing and I helped.” Her pride seemed missing.

“We sanded the pews, white-washed the church, took days to clean the old stained-glass windows and scrub the floor. Dad told Mom not to replace the burnt-out bulbs to hide spots we may have missed. He was sure that sparkling church would show God we were good enough. Thus, our fresh start would begin. I can still smell that pine scent…”

She drifted. Why again? Why now?

Suddenly, she grasped my wrist, “Sure enough, from 11 to midnight that revival pastor preached up a storm. But, no one could have imagined what would happen next.” Her eyes not wide, but today, slits of blue. “A real storm arrived!”

“Exactly at midnight there was the sound of a train approaching. Without tracks for a hundred miles, that only means one thing…TORNADO! Some said it was the devil himself trying to keep God out. You’d think we’d run for cover, but not a soul moved. The preacher preached. The sound got louder. He invited us to the altar to accept Jesus. People moved forward, not fearin’ but prayin’.

That preacher shouted so loud over the wind and waved his hands you’d have thought he was shaking the walls and breaking the windows. Mom and dad grabbed me. We were the last to the altar, just before the thunderous crash. The 100-year-old oak tree fell onto the church. Cold, strong winds blew debris onto our huddled kneeling mass. The preacher prayed.” She paused.

At this point she’d say, ‘The best miracle was everyone was saved AND everyone was SAVED!” But today, her hand shook and pointed to my heart.

She was not done.

“All were saved, but there’s more?” My interest piqued.

“Rummaging through my things, I found the Bible Dad gave me when I turned 18.” Tears streamed down her wrinkled face.

She pulled a yellowish paper from it. “And this note that I never read till recently.” Handing it to me, “Read it, to us, now.”

I read: Dad brought a revival preacher to begin the New Year’s with a fresh start for our church. We had no idea it would be for us.
It was definitely God’s double miracle when that horrendous tornado hit and the tree fell on the church that everyone huddled at the altar survived AND all accepted Jesus as their savior. What a glorious day!
But God always does more that we know. Just today, weeks after that miracle, Dad and I realized we both received a revelation from God. See, we spent all that time sanding, scrubbing, painting and washing that church so God would show up. But, the preacher’s message cut to our hearts. He told us that God did not wait to love us until we ‘white washed our lives or hid our sins from sight.’ God loved us all enough to send his only son Jesus into this world to be pure light that shines to show us our sin, not to condemn but to save. Jesus was sacrificed on a cross to pay for the sins of the world, the HE arose from the dead.

God’s love is not based on what we do, but placed on us by His mercy and grace!

Dad and I spent our lives trying to clean up and be good enough so God would love us and come to our church. But God already loved us.

We have a fresh start and we are using it to share the truth of the gospel message. Fresh starts don’t have to begin at a new year. You can start today.

I finished, looked up and noticed that Grandma left with a smile.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
01/14/17
Awww...what a touching story. Well written and powerful in its content and deliver.
God bless~