Today's sermon for Easter was about Hope. Where and who do we put our hope in? What do we hope for? My hope has been in my Lord since I believed in Him and turned my life over so many years ago. My hope for my children to know Christ had been present from the first moment I knew I was pregnant, but it was almost destroyed when I was told my child had autism. How does a child with autism understand God? My son has such a concrete brain and the thought of him understanding something that he can't touch has been a stumbling block in my own faith since he was diagnosed with autism over 4 years ago. God has been working on me about this weakness in my faith for a long time and I had come to believe again that God could reach my child, but I didn't know how. My heart has been feeling the need to talk to my son more and more about God recently and today at church while singing the song "The Great I Am", my prayers for God to make himself known to my son through the death and resurrection of His Son reached a new level of urgency. I was overcome by emotion and there is no telling what people were thinking, but I didn't care. I was in the presence of my Savior and He was all I needed. In those moments, I could see where my son was in the church and I knew God was there with Him making Himself known. Opening up the first glimpse into His Being and telling my son about His Son. God spoke to my heart and gave me a peace that surpasses understanding. I knew that the process of God opening up my son's heart to Him was started. I prayed fervently for God to use me in my son coming to know Him. After Church, I went to the computer to find a video of the song and came across a youtube version that someone had created of the song to the Jesus video. My son came and watched it with me and asked lots of questions. He learns so much more through seeing than hearing and I know the video spoke to him on a new level. He even asked to watch it again hours later.
As I rejoice knowing that God is at work here in my son's heart, I am left a little ashamed that I have not been as fervent in my prayers for all the lost. God, help me to see the lost as you do and to have the same urgency for their salvation as I have for my son. Now if that happens for us all who profess to be saved by Christ's blood, then we are in for a mighty change!
Lyrics: "I wanna be close, close to your side. So Heaven is real, and death is a lie. I wanna hear voices of angels above, singing as one...(chorus)Hallelujah, Holy, Holy, God Almighty, the Great I Am. Who is Worthy? None beside Thee. God Almighty, The Great I Am. I wanna be near, near to Your heart. Loving the world, hating the dark. I want to see dry bones living again, singing as one...(chorus)... The mountains shake before Him, the demons run and flee at the mention of the name, King of Majesty...There is no power in hell, or any who can stand before the power and the presence of the Great I Am.
