| EXCHANGE OF IDEAS

 

This month a reader shares a witnessing moment.

 

When Love Grows Deeply

An elderly woman was pleased with my charm. When I first met her, she kindly asked me to visit her and gave me her address. She and I talked about Sabbath-keeping. She showed me her Bible and books of Ellen G. White. I became amazed as she told me that she was an Adventist and that her father had been a pastor many years ago. She was not proceeding in her faith because her husband had told her not to talk about religious matters. She was in deep sorrow because she never brought her two children to the truth. For 30 years she longed to meet someone who was of the same faith. And then we met each other.

 

Every time I visited her, I offered a prayer; and in my personal devotion, I prayed for this woman. God answered my prayers and soon she wished to begin keeping Sabbath again. One day I was speaking about the soon coming of our Savior. To my surprise, she gave me money to buy flowers to set on my salon table. The woman instructed me to go to a special flower shop and buy a specific and unique combination of flowers. She wanted me to get the freshest and most expense flowers, and she made sure I had enough to cover the cost.

 

Every day I saw the blend of different shapes and colors. Similar contours, each figure in this bundle of blossoms was perfect and beautiful. Not one was hideous or repulsive. As I studied the blossoms each day my attention focused on another aspect: spiritual beauty. The “peculiar” people of God have a unique glamour. Our God is perfect and His love is beautiful and everlasting. The sweetness of His shadow reflects in us.

 

People of God delight in engaging with other people. Yes, we Adventists profess to be tender, smart in giving the message, and elegant in bearing (notwithstanding that we do have subversive natures that are predisposed to pride, selfishness, and deceit). But we often fall short of the goal of loving people well. This too was another reason for the woman’s departure from the church.

 

As she confided in me her hurts, I, thinking about those lovely flowers, responded, “We have to polish the dullness from our spirits and preserve our beauty like the flowers.”

 

I also shared with her Mrs. White’s words in The Desire of the Ages (p. 468). The path may be steep and rugged, but Jesus has traveled that way; His feet have pressed down the cruel thorns to make the pathway easier for us…. Jesus thought upon the souls all over the earth who were mislead by false shepherds. Those whom He longed to gather as His pastures were scattered among wolves, and He said, ‘Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock, one shepherd’ (John 10:16 RSV).”

 

The power of love is the image of Jesus seen in our lives. We can unite together to finish His work on this earth. Then we shall be one bouquet, intact, with bundles of joy—and enclosed in His loving arms forevermore.

—Estrella Anacleto Jordan, Prilly, Switzerland