From Knowledge to Known

God performs miracles in order that he might be glorified and that people would believe that he is the one true God. This happened constantly when Jesus was ministering on earth. He was constantly performing miracles and people were believing. I think sometimes I have a hard time believing that God still does miracles today. I hear stories all the time of people conquering cancer, broken bones mending, and major surgeries on the heart or brain leading to complete healing. Maybe we give credit to the leaps we have made in science and technology. 

Her faith was simply a category of her life,

Claire grew up in the church, learning about God, the Bible, and her faith traditions from her family and even in her school. Her faith became another category of her life, regularly present and existing alongside all the other categories like education, hobbies, work, family time, and so on. 

“At this point, my faith was led with my head but I didn’t know my heart could be involved in my faith.”

She was content to live - eat, sleep, play, relax, learn - in a stream of culture that didn’t integrate faith into life but kept it compartmentalized as another mark on a calendar full of events. Sure, faith was important, but in her mind, it was set aside for Sundays and the occasional prayers before meals or going to bed.

“In the spring of my senior year in high school, my dad was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer that spread to his esophagus, liver, and lung which brought heartache to me and my family. I started to see my dad cling to God. Not that he talked about it, but I saw him sit in stillness with God constantly.”

“…but I saw him sit in stillness with God constantly.”

The devastation ran so deep that words couldn’t be formed for solace. Nothing spoken could bring relief to the trauma that his body was slowly deteriorating down a path of a slow and painful death. 

If you want to not think about your circumstances, you don’t have to go any farther than the phone in your pocket - instant distraction. Claire’s father went elsewhere for peace. He had a profound reconciliation with God. He could have taken a path towards anger and bitterness for the hand he had been given, yet he chose to run to God. He realized at that moment that it was better to sit with God in silence, constantly, and let him heal his heart even if that meant that his body was wasting away. For her dad, knowing about God turned into knowing God. A sweet relationship began to form in the midst of anguish and suffering.

Claire left her home to attend college. Watching her father’s health decline and his faith increase started to change what she knew about God. She joined a church and she began to pray every day that God heal her dad. What she wasn’t asking for was for God to heal her heart.

“During my freshman year of college, my dad was admitted to the hospital because the chemo wasn’t working and hospice was the next step to take, but a trial of immunotherapy was also offered. He decided to start this new drug to give him a few more years of life before this trial would eventually stop working as well. However, three years later I get a call from my parents that the cancer had reduced in size, and he would be stopping treatment to live a cancer-free life.”

Claire attributes this miracle directly to God. She gives him the credit and the glory for choosing to heal her father to full health through the common grace of medicine and doctors. Witnessing this miracle was the tipping point for her heart. 

A little while later, Claire met her future husband, Luke, who knew Jesus and was faithfully attending a Bible church. He encouraged Claire to join him. One Sunday when Luke couldn’t be at church, she decided to go by herself. The pastor shared the gospel in a clear and profound way that week, and God prepared Claire’s heart to listen.

“He explained the gospel, that God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place on the cross. God’s justice was reconciled with the cross and through this, we can have a relationship with him. For salvation, I have to believe in Jesus. I’ve heard this story my whole life, but I didn’t KNOW the gospel until this day. At this moment a weight was lifted from my shoulders, and I was filled with hope…”

Claire knew about the gospel. She knew about Jesus and about his love for people. She knew about what he did on the cross and she probably was very thankful for his sacrifice. But God didn’t want Claire to just know about him, he wanted to give himself to her through a relationship with Jesus. Now, her heart is filled with love for her savior who experienced pain, suffering, and loss to their fullest extent. Each day, God is revealing more of himself to her, giving her a deeper love and desire to sit in his presence, to sit in silence, and be with her Father.