February 07, 2013

God’s Love, God’s Gift – Ramona Heikel

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays because it spreads the idea of love throughout the nations that celebrate it. The story of St. Valentine is credited with the establishment of the special day, and that introduces an element of sacrifice in the celebration, which is the highest form of love. Even with the assault of red and pink in the stores and the subtle message that “how much you love is how much you spend”, I figure we may as well focus on love as anything else.

One of the biggest understatements in the Bible is “God is love”. It will probably take us all our lives to unpack the full meaning, and I have no doubt that the Lord takes delight is finding ways to show us the depth of his love.

About twenty years ago, something happened that showed me how much God loved me. Through these circumstances, for the first time, I felt His eyes on me, that he knew my name, and that he did this for me not because I needed it, but because he wanted to give me a gift.

My dream was to home school our children but that just didn’t work out. So my next choice was to send them to a Christian school, not just for the spiritual aspects, but also because I believed this was the best school around to give them a strong academic foundation for the rest of their education. We’d put them on the waiting list for grade one when my oldest turned five, and waited to see what would happen.

In the spring of the following year, we got a phone call to say that they had a spot for our son. Yippee! I was elated at this answer to prayer, but wasn’t sure what my husband would say. Since the boys had been born, we had pretty much lived on one salary, and it would be tough to come up with the extra chunk of money to pay for tuition. Transportation was also an issue, surprisingly. Since I was running a day home, I couldn’t drive my children to school, and the cost to bus them was almost as much as the tuition.

On top of that, my financially conservative husband had questioned the need for a Christian education, and was on a “break” in the oil business cycle, so the only income we had was my babysitting income. Yet I believed that God would direct this through his response.

For some reason, he left the decision completely up to me! This completely defied logic. It was a miracle. A first-hand miracle.

So, of course, the first thing I did was feel guilty for taking so much of God’s time praying for this miracle, even when there were people around the world who were far more desperate for God’s life-sustaining power. Then it was as if God said, “This is for you.” Tears came to my eyes then—as now—as I realized how a far-away God was touching my life. Only He knew how much this meant to me.

We registered our son for grade one, even though we had no idea how we’d pay for it. The situation was repeated each spring for the next two years, for both boys, and the result was the same, even when we were both unemployed.

I’m so happy for the benefits of their nine years in the school, but the best thing that happened from this in my own spiritual journey is that God forced me to not only face my fears, but to jump right in without a safety net. And better yet, He taught me repeatedly to turn the well-being of my children over to Him.

Such love!


Posted by Ramona
www.happilywriting.com

6 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Thank you, Ramona, for sharing this very special love story with us!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is so beautiful Lorrie and a real life miracle that's for sure. Sometimes it's really difficult to have the faith that we need to get through but somehow we always do by the grace of God. I relate so much to your writing here and I'm going through a different but somewhat similar experience myself with my daughter. It's a long story but I'm praying everyday that God will intervene for her...he has before and brought her from the depths of personal health problems to overcome them and to heal. Now it is time for her to heal emotionally and financially. Thank you for sharing it helps me to read that your faith is strong.
    I have joined your blog and thank you for visiting my blog and for your lovely comment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I need to hear this regularly and I thank you for sharing it in such a lovely blog post, Lorrie. My children are grown and living in another city. They don't believe in God - at least not intellectually - any more, but I know His Word is active and living and still tugs away at their spirits, calling them home again. I appreciate the encouragement in your post today!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oops - sorry, Ramona, that I called you Lorrie by mistake!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ramona,
    What an exciting, faith-filled story. When we step out with God it is so amazing what He can do. Nothing is impossible with God.
    Blessings,
    Janis

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to join in the conversation. Our writers appreciate receiving your feedback on posts you have found helpful or meaningful in some way.