I presume the child in this photo is a girl, though there is nothing convincing in the photo to assure me of this. No matter, boy or girl, God knows. This is one of the few fortunate children to escape Afghanistan only days before strict Sharia law is imposed. The child’s future is about to take a “synthetic”change of direction in terms of Hegel’s dialect. She may grow up as a Muslim or not, but she will be able to grow up and not be singled out for violence or repression by the government because of her sex. In this blog post we’ll see how God works in mysterious ways.
Looking at the photo in a contemplative sense, I wonder what the child will be when (s)he grows up? A teacher? A doctor? A journalist? Some other honorable profession? But for now, she sleeps as she is whisked away from her homeland into the night skies. Without knowing any details of the child’s family or circumstances, I see this as God at work for some inscrutable purpose known only to Him.
In this post, I wanted to share some personal accounts of how God intervened in my life as well, often in unusual or unexpected ways.
The first time was before I was even conceived and well before my mother met my future father (she was only twelve at the time). After World War I, my maternal grandfather was discharged from the German Army and was caught up in the political violence in Germany at the end of the war (the Spartacus Rebellion.) I don’t recall if he just left the country or if he was exiled, but he went to America before my grandmother could join him, to find a place for the three of them to live. He came to America because there was a friend of the family here who offered him help getting started. However, he also had a good friend in South Africa, and he almost went there, instead. I often wonder what my life might have been in a country like that, and, of course, ultimately with a different father had he exercised that option.
In the years just before I became a Christian, I was involved in some strange supernatural stuff. I was a practicing medium until my controls (spirit guides) started insisting that I “renounce Jesus.” I had no idea what they meant, so they explained that I needed to understand that Jesus was a good man, but he was not the Son of God. They said I could not grow as a medium until I had done that. I had gone to Sunday School and church as a child, but I didn’t know the Lord personally. I might have gone along with my controls, except they pushed and pushed (me) to renounce Jesus as God’s Son, and this made me dig in my heels and focus on Jesus and who He was instead of my mediumship. A week or two later, I became born again. So, I John 4:1-3 has a very personal meaning to me. It resonates within me.
But I continued as a medium for a month or so after my conversion because I was very young in the faith and did not know better. I attended a Vacation Bible School (VBS) meeting one evening back then, and a young couple among the 8-10 attendees stood up and said that there were people in the area who had familiar spirits, and some might be in a position to influence the children in the VBS program. He also said that communicating with familiar spirits was a terrible sin and whoever was doing it needed to just stop! You see, a chaplain who knew nothing about me, invited me to teach VBS when he heard I had just become a Christian. The message about “familiar spirits” was a warning from God that was addressed to me. I introduced myself to the young couple when the meeting ended (after climbing out from under the table where I decided to hide-lol), but they seemed to not respond to me in any unusual way. Months later, after become fast friends with them, they told me that they were prompted by God out of the blue to say what they did, letting the chips fly as they may. The other ladies in the room thought them daft, but I knew they were really spot on. The lessons I learned from this were (1) Not to get involved with the supernatural; (2) speak boldly whenever you are prompted by the Spirit of God,and that (3) God can reach out to us using others in very specific ways.
After Vietnam, I got married, had three wonderful children, and we eventually wound up in Wichita Falls, TX months after the devastating 1979 F4 tornado that killed forty-six people and destroyed a third of the city. Rental housing was almost nonexistent. When we arrived, we were offered base housing, but needed to live some where for a month until it became available. The only vacant housing was a mobile home in a mobile home park. The manager demanded the month’s rent in advance before she gave us the keys. However, I needed to retrieve my uniform from our baggage and iron it, so I could check onto the base and get paid. The manager refused to let us stay “on credit” for even three hours to do that. I went to my wife and children across the road from the park and we joined hands and prayed that God would intervene. We were interrupted by the park manager, who came running out to ask us if we were Christians. She had seen us praying and God had touched her heart to let us stay. A few hours later we paid her what was due.
God uses us to reach out to others
I was working as an instructor in the Air Force School of Health Care Science and after returning to my desk around 1980-81, I had a telegram lying there which was supposedly sent by singer/actor Shaun Cassidy. I was working for Contemporary Christian Magazine part time, so it was not a total shock. When I called John Styll, my publisher, he asked me how I knew it came from Shaun Cassidy. I said I did not, except it had his name on it as the sender. John said that someone was impersonating Cassidy and he would put me in touch with Cassidy to work out a verification “code” for the future. Cassidy’s wife phoned me a week later and I spoke with Shaun. We agreed on some obscure fact that was not widely known. I had Shaun’s mailing address at that point, so I purchased a copy of The Living Bible for him and mailed it. I’m not sure if he ever read it or if he even received it, but I see this as how God works.
I have other similar examples of this here.
Famous people have been likewise turned in a different direction. Martin Luther was walking with a friend in a field when a bolt of lightning struck, killing his friend but sparing him. It was because of this that Luther became a monk, and one that launched the Reformation at that.
William Booth founded the Salvation Army after having a Near Death Experience. John Newton became a Christian after wittnessing first hand the horror of the slave trade. Richard Nixon’s aide Chuck Colson became a Christian while in prison.
Who knows what God has in store for the child in the photo. But this child is someone we can pray for even now.
Feature photo: An Afghan child sleeps aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III, kept warm by the uniform of the C-17 loadmaster, during an evacuation flight from Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 15, 2021. Service members helped facilitate the safe departure and relocation of U.S. citizens, Special Immigration Visa recipients and vulnerable Afghan populations from Afghanistan. DoD Courtesy photo
