(no subject)
As you can all see I'm not that much of a blogger. But I have a testimony concerning my youngest daughter who is handicapped that I wanted to share for Easter.
I write this testimony to the glory of God and hopefully to reveal to our hearts God’s heart for children. Those we would consider the least of these our brethren. No one in God’s eyes is inferior to another and we can learn from one another no matter how insignificant we or others may feel we are. God has a plan and a hope for each one of us and will touch our hearts as we seek to draw near to Him.
There are times in our lives when we feel that we are insignificant and wonder if even God notices us. I want to give testimony to the fact that God loves and cares for each of us with a love so great, so deep, so wide that we cannot even begin to comprehend it.
I have a daughter who is mentally handicapped who at the age of 12 only has the mental ability of a two year old child. Some may wonder if God can reach these children and if they can even come to know Him. My heart ached for my daughter to know God and what it was He did for her. When she was four years of age I had asked the Lord to let me know that she knew Him. Shortly afterward, the same day I had prayed that prayer; Caitlin hummed the hymn “Jesus loves me”. I felt the presence of God near me as she hummed that tune and knew that He had just given me an answer to my prayer. I knew that somehow in her spirit (though Caitlin could not communicate it) she knew the Lord.
A couple of years later, at the age of 6 1/2 , I felt in my spirit that Caitlin needed to know what the Lord did for her. However, I did not know how to relate this to her. Her vocabulary was very limited and she only knew how to speak with individual words. She was not yet speaking in sentences. Caitlin could understand us if she could see, touch, and do what was being said to her. She could not understand abstract concepts. The only way she could know and understand was if the Lord would reveal it to her Himself and so this was my prayer for her for a couple of months. I said, “Lord Caitlin needs to see what you did for her, so she can understand your great love for her. You need to show her somehow through a dream or a vision.” I felt confidant that the Lord would answer my prayer, I just didn’t know when He would.
It was at Easter time in 1999 that the Lord answered my prayer. We were at an Easter Sunday service, sitting in the back of the balcony. Caitlin was on my lap and we had just finished the worship portion of the service. Our Pastor was giving the Easter message when Caitlin started pointing to the front of the stage and asking “What da? What da?” (What’s that?) There was a cross standing to the left of the stage with a white cloth draped over the cross beam. It looked like that that was what she was pointing to, so I whispered to her that it was a cross. Well, she kept on asking, to the point of distraction “What da? What da?” I kept on whispering that it was a cross. Then I thought maybe she wanted to know what the white piece of material was and so I told her it was a piece of cloth. But she still kept on asking “What da? What da?” My husband and I were getting quite annoyed with her and Larry thought that maybe we should take her out of the service. There weren’t too many people sitting around us, so I said, “No, she’s ok - she’s not being that loud.” We stayed in the service, and she started being noisy again. This time she pointed to her hand and said “Owie, owie!” I looked at her hand to see what the problem was. I didn’t see that anything was wrong and told her she was fine and that she needed to be quiet. She kept on pointing to her hand saying “Owie, owie!” and then to her other hand saying “Owie, owie”. I would tell her she was fine and to be quiet. She would then point back at the cross and say “What da? What da?” Soon after she was pointing to her feet and saying, “Owie, owie” to which I again replied that she was ok. Then she pointed to her head, and said “Owie, owie.” It was at this point that I realized that she was having a vision. I poked my husband in the ribs and mentioned to him that he ought to watch Caitlin and see what she was doing. She repeated this behaviour over and over and finally she pointed to her side and said “pier, pier, (pierced or spear, don't know which) while staring at the cross and pointing to it. We had never heard her say that word before, but in context knew what she was saying. She was seeing Jesus being pierced on the cross. We had a hard time containing her until after the service was over, at which point we took her down to the lower level and into the lower sanctuary. We put her down to see what she would do. She ran to the front of the church where the cross stood and said “look, look, owie, owie”. We could not see what she was seeing but knew in our hearts that the Lord had again answered our prayers and revealed to Caitlin what it was He did for her. We stayed at the front of the church for another 10 - 15 minutes when we realized we needed to go. So we told Caitlin it was time to go at which point she started throwing kisses at the cross and saying “bye bye, bye bye.” She then waved at the cross and looked up at the ceiling waving and saying ”bye bye, bye bye.” She had also seen Jesus raised and going back to heaven to be with His Father.
That vision is with Caitlin even to this day. Soon after we brought out a children’s Bible and opened it to the page where Jesus was hanging on the cross. We left it on the table to see what Caitlin would do with it. She picked up the Bible and kissed that page over and over again and carried that Bible with her wherever she went for quite a few months afterward. She also pointed to anything (including real estate signs) that looked like a cross and said “owie, owie”. Now when she sees a cross she just says “God, God.”
So, you see, God’s heart and His desire is for us to know Him, no matter how small and insignificant we may think we are. He will reveal Himself to us and all we need do is ask. Isn’t He a great God.
I write this testimony to the glory of God and hopefully to reveal to our hearts God’s heart for children. Those we would consider the least of these our brethren. No one in God’s eyes is inferior to another and we can learn from one another no matter how insignificant we or others may feel we are. God has a plan and a hope for each one of us and will touch our hearts as we seek to draw near to Him.
There are times in our lives when we feel that we are insignificant and wonder if even God notices us. I want to give testimony to the fact that God loves and cares for each of us with a love so great, so deep, so wide that we cannot even begin to comprehend it.
I have a daughter who is mentally handicapped who at the age of 12 only has the mental ability of a two year old child. Some may wonder if God can reach these children and if they can even come to know Him. My heart ached for my daughter to know God and what it was He did for her. When she was four years of age I had asked the Lord to let me know that she knew Him. Shortly afterward, the same day I had prayed that prayer; Caitlin hummed the hymn “Jesus loves me”. I felt the presence of God near me as she hummed that tune and knew that He had just given me an answer to my prayer. I knew that somehow in her spirit (though Caitlin could not communicate it) she knew the Lord.
A couple of years later, at the age of 6 1/2 , I felt in my spirit that Caitlin needed to know what the Lord did for her. However, I did not know how to relate this to her. Her vocabulary was very limited and she only knew how to speak with individual words. She was not yet speaking in sentences. Caitlin could understand us if she could see, touch, and do what was being said to her. She could not understand abstract concepts. The only way she could know and understand was if the Lord would reveal it to her Himself and so this was my prayer for her for a couple of months. I said, “Lord Caitlin needs to see what you did for her, so she can understand your great love for her. You need to show her somehow through a dream or a vision.” I felt confidant that the Lord would answer my prayer, I just didn’t know when He would.
It was at Easter time in 1999 that the Lord answered my prayer. We were at an Easter Sunday service, sitting in the back of the balcony. Caitlin was on my lap and we had just finished the worship portion of the service. Our Pastor was giving the Easter message when Caitlin started pointing to the front of the stage and asking “What da? What da?” (What’s that?) There was a cross standing to the left of the stage with a white cloth draped over the cross beam. It looked like that that was what she was pointing to, so I whispered to her that it was a cross. Well, she kept on asking, to the point of distraction “What da? What da?” I kept on whispering that it was a cross. Then I thought maybe she wanted to know what the white piece of material was and so I told her it was a piece of cloth. But she still kept on asking “What da? What da?” My husband and I were getting quite annoyed with her and Larry thought that maybe we should take her out of the service. There weren’t too many people sitting around us, so I said, “No, she’s ok - she’s not being that loud.” We stayed in the service, and she started being noisy again. This time she pointed to her hand and said “Owie, owie!” I looked at her hand to see what the problem was. I didn’t see that anything was wrong and told her she was fine and that she needed to be quiet. She kept on pointing to her hand saying “Owie, owie!” and then to her other hand saying “Owie, owie”. I would tell her she was fine and to be quiet. She would then point back at the cross and say “What da? What da?” Soon after she was pointing to her feet and saying, “Owie, owie” to which I again replied that she was ok. Then she pointed to her head, and said “Owie, owie.” It was at this point that I realized that she was having a vision. I poked my husband in the ribs and mentioned to him that he ought to watch Caitlin and see what she was doing. She repeated this behaviour over and over and finally she pointed to her side and said “pier, pier, (pierced or spear, don't know which) while staring at the cross and pointing to it. We had never heard her say that word before, but in context knew what she was saying. She was seeing Jesus being pierced on the cross. We had a hard time containing her until after the service was over, at which point we took her down to the lower level and into the lower sanctuary. We put her down to see what she would do. She ran to the front of the church where the cross stood and said “look, look, owie, owie”. We could not see what she was seeing but knew in our hearts that the Lord had again answered our prayers and revealed to Caitlin what it was He did for her. We stayed at the front of the church for another 10 - 15 minutes when we realized we needed to go. So we told Caitlin it was time to go at which point she started throwing kisses at the cross and saying “bye bye, bye bye.” She then waved at the cross and looked up at the ceiling waving and saying ”bye bye, bye bye.” She had also seen Jesus raised and going back to heaven to be with His Father.
That vision is with Caitlin even to this day. Soon after we brought out a children’s Bible and opened it to the page where Jesus was hanging on the cross. We left it on the table to see what Caitlin would do with it. She picked up the Bible and kissed that page over and over again and carried that Bible with her wherever she went for quite a few months afterward. She also pointed to anything (including real estate signs) that looked like a cross and said “owie, owie”. Now when she sees a cross she just says “God, God.”
So, you see, God’s heart and His desire is for us to know Him, no matter how small and insignificant we may think we are. He will reveal Himself to us and all we need do is ask. Isn’t He a great God.