Maria Rapha

Today, Crazy M became a believer.

I can’t tell you when the journey began for her. I am certain that God was planting seeds in her life at a very young age. I was merely present today to witness the beautiful harvest.

We were making Valentine’s Day cards for her classmates and mine. I felt very reflective during the activity as it seemed like a very mom-like thing to do. We started talking about Rihanna (a very popular recording artist) and which of her songs I did and didn’t appreciate. I honestly don’t have a clue how our conversation cut to Romans. At some point, I mentioned that to become a believer, all you had to do was pray to Jesus, tell him that you were sorry for the things you had done wrong and ask Him to be your God. Then you have to follow Him the rest of your life. To be honest, I must have been very distracted when I was telling her this because I only vaguely recalled it. I only snapped back to reality when I heard her say, “Can I pray that prayer tonight?” My jaw nearly dropped to the table and the over-glittered V-Day card that I held in my hand was ignored. I fought the urge to get her on her knees right then, knowing that it would be better to wait until I could have her full attention. It was a good choice because she immediately returned to scrawling her name on her Valentines, as if she had just remarked about the weather.

As usual, we went through our bedtime ritual of her bathing and me tucking her in. I pulled back the covers and scooted in beside her. I patiently read to her from The Tale of Desperaux, the book we have been reading together. Next, I reached for my Bible, as is also the tradition. Today, I read to her from John 3, taking the time to explain to her what Jesus and Nicodemus were talking about. At some point, I referred to hell. It was clear she didn’t know what I was talking about. I was reluctant to speak to her about hell as she already is prone to bouts of fear. But in my heart, I thought it wrong to water-down the Gospel. I told her that there were two types of people in the world—those who had accepted Jesus’ forgiveness and those who had not. And then, as gently as I could, I told her about the reality of hell. She immediately starting crying, fearing not for herself, but her mother, her father and her siblings. But then I reminded her of God’s beautiful news—that one need only ask Jesus to forgive them and decide to follow him, and they would get to spend forever with Him. She was still very concerned about her family so I took her to 1 John 5 and showed her that if we pray for anything that God desires, we can be sure that it will happen! God desires her mother to be saved so all we have to do is be faithful in prayer. She immediately closed her eyes and began to pray for her mother, her father and finally, herself. She asked the Lord to forgive them and to forgive her. I then asked her if she wanted to follow Jesus the rest of her life, she said she did. I spent the next several minutes trying to explain to her the magnitude of what just happened. I told her how Jesus was with her and how she now had the power within her (from Jesus) to heal the sick, cast out evil spirits and raise the dead. I told her about Jericho and Daniel and the Lions Den. I even told her about how my dad’s ribs were healed. She surprised me by recalling the story of how my dad’s back had been miraculously healed. I told her I had seen the deaf hear and the blind see. I told her that now, wherever she went, Jesus was walking right beside her, offering her help and love. Finally, we prayed again. I nearly wept when she prayed for her dad. She prayed that she when she grew up to be a teenager, that she would get to know him. I then prayed for her family and that her father would realize what an incredible daughter he had.

And so, Crazy M is no longer Crazy M. She has become part of my family, of your family. She has a new name, a new identiy. From this point on, I will call her Maria Rapha, Maria the Healer for God is going to use her to bind the wounds of generations of brokenness in her family.

Praise be to the Ever-Living God!

B.

P.S. “Grandpa”—Maria Rapha said more than once that she misses you. She asked if she could hang the paper-towel-note you made us in her room. Thanks so much for coming. It blessed us so much. “Grandma”—your turn will come. Thanks for loving her so much already. I love you so much, too.