Rascal...

Our awesome Father loves us more than we can ever imagine. He even loves us on our very worse day. On the day we have our back to him and on a day that we think we certainly don't need or want him, God loves us! Why does he loves us so much? Because we are his children.

I had an older than old man working for me in a big box retail setting. This man, Willy, wore a smile from ear to ear daily and greeted everyone with interest and kindness. Having grabbed the short straw in most every situation, this man lived by himself in a one room empty apartment and slept on the hardwood floors with roaches running around him and mice climbing up the walls.

Many years ago his wife had caught him in bed with another woman. Looking down he told with shame, "the look she gave me will not be forgotten." He never saw his wife or kids again. He filled the void in his life with alcohol and never gave much thought to giving up the bottle.

Once his story was revealed to me, I immediately began helping him and hooked him up with other Christ-followers in the workplace. We provided things he needed and prayed for him. He had been to a Christian church a few times, but didn't feel comfortable sitting there as his past haunted him.

I talked to him almost every day and shared Jesus with him. I would share stories out of the bible and told him how great God is and how he was moving in my life. As God's light shined through me often he told me he wanted what I had and told me so almost every day.

One night I talked to him about our great savior for an hour and a half in the parking lot with a full harvest moon low in the eastern sky. He would not take the leap. He would not jump and receive Jesus as he was Muslim and felt he would be letting down his strong heritage if he turned to Christ.

Finally, I pointed at the moon and said to him, "Willy, you see the moon up there.There is a song by Matt Redman, "You Never Let Go!" that says, 'And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on. A glorious light beyond all compare.'

I continued, "Everytime you see the moon from now on, I want you to remember what I just said because there is a light that is coming for the heart that holds on. A light that is coming for us. No matter what you have done in your past, you are a son of God just as I am. You can have what I have. Repent and believe in him. God loves you!

Willy never did receive God as long as I knew him, but he told me many times that I was a rascal. A rascal because from that night on as he drove home in the dark, he would look at the moon and think about the Jesus I had.

Rick Hawbaker

'Serving King Jesus'