(April 29, 2024) Mama Lava tells a delightful story… with a heart-touching challenge.

The Story…
A young couple met young and fell madly in love.

Wife was beautiful and sweet, and Husband was charming and ready to take on the world.

(Photo Henri Pham on Unsplash).

They didn’t have much, but they had each other and their wild dreams for the future.

Disappointments
As the years went by, they experienced one disappointment after another. Business ideas blossomed and withered, and any meagre savings they managed to accumulate quickly dissipated. There were a couple of pregnancies, but none that went full-term. An injury incurred at a thankless job, leaving  Husband dejected and in constant pain.

They each felt empty and in need of something more, so Wife began to go to church. Husband preferred the bar. They lived together but grew far apart.

Wife learned about the hope and salvation offered in Jesus Christ. She prayed and asked Him into her heart and immediately He began to change her perspective. For the first time, the love she had for Husband wasn’t dependent on her emotions. She loved him with an unconditional love. And she wanted so much for him to know Jesus too!

(Photo Henri Pham on Unsplash).

Husband became a regular at his favourite pub. He was a ton of fun, once the alcohol muted his pain, and he made friends easily. He was still fond of Wife, but she simply wasn’t his kind of people anymore.

No matter how much Wife pleaded or invited, Husband wouldn’t go to church with her, nor would he endure her talk about Jesus. She could do her thing, but he wanted no part of it. His answers were served at the bar.

Delay
One Monday night, Wife came home late from church. It had been a very long day. The morning had begun with a prayer meeting and then she had helped with set up for Vacation Bible School. They were short volunteers, so she stayed and taught the kids. They sang and danced and acted out Bible stories and the children had so much energy!

Once the kids had all gone home, she had helped the Homeless Ministry make and pack dinners and went with them to feed the people on the streets. She had pulled the wagon full of boxed food and walked for miles until every meal had been given out.

Once back at the church, there were dishes to wash and counters to clean. When she finally got home, she only managed to take off her shoes before fell into bed, exhausted.

About 30 minutes later, Husband came home from the bar with a handful of his friends. They were drunk and loud, and if their boisterous vulgarity hadn’t awoken her, the shattering of her favourite vase would have. As Wife prayed for God’s perspective, Husband burst into the room and demanded food.

Demands
‘Wife, get up and cook something. We’re hungry!’ he yelled. She got up and went to the kitchen. She smiled to herself, but Husband saw it and demanded to know what she found amusing.

‘I was so tired this evening that I didn’t change into my pyjamas,’ she said. ‘I was thanking God for allowing me to be dressed when our company came over.’ She motioned to the guests Husband had brought home.

There wasn’t a whole lot in the fridge, but Wife threw together what she had with skill born of making many delicious dinners from meagre ingredients. Once she had served everyone, she turned to clean the kitchen.

By the time the pans were scrubbed and put away, the last of the food was eaten and the guests had retired to the sitting room with Husband. She cleared the table, washed the plates, and placed them in the cabinet.

Before she returned to bed, she peeked in on Husband and his friends and asked if there was anything else they needed. Husband suggested coffee, and she returned to the kitchen to brew it.

Husband was beginning to sober up and felt for Wife. He told her he would serve the coffee when it was done. Wife thanked him, made her gracious exit, and fell back into bed.

Decisions
Wife rose early the next day and tiptoed past Husband as he slept. Things went much smoother at church and Wife was home earlier in the evening. Even so, she was surprised to find husband still at the house. He seemed to have been waiting for her.

‘Hello, Husband’, she said in her sweet way. ‘Is everything ok?’

‘Why were you so nice last night?’ he blurted out. ‘Why did you get up and cook and serve and clean for us when we were drunk and vulgar and rude?’

(Photo Nathan Dumlao on Upsplash)

‘Well, husband,’ she began carefully. ‘I love you and things have been hard for us. I am looking forward to heaven, where I will enter into the joy of my Master. But you have chosen not to go there with me. I shudder to think about what awaits you. This life, right now, is the best it will ever get for you. I want to make your experience here on earth as close to Heaven as possible.’

Tears filled Husband’s eyes as he pulled Wife close. ‘How can you possibly love me so much after all of the ways I’ve let you down?’ he asked. ‘I can’t explain it’ answered Wife. ‘It just comes pouring out from the heart of Jesus, through me, and onto you. He loves us all without condition.’

Determination
Husband couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. He had made such a mess of things, but he had married well. ‘Can you introduce me to Jesus, Wife?’ he asked. ‘I am convinced He is what I have been searching for in all the wrong places.

(Photo Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash)

Wife was overjoyed as she escorted Husband, in prayer, to God’s throne room of grace. There, Husband found eternal forgiveness, love beyond measure, and renewed purpose. He surrendered his heart to his Saviour and received the assurance of heaven as his disappointments faded from importance.

He resolved to let his friends know the truth, that unless they accepted Jesus, there would be no heaven ahead and this life would be the best it gets for them. He determined to live out God’s relentless love until it caught up with them, like Wife had done for him. If God had saved him, he knew there was surely hope for all of them.

The End                                                                             

Difference
As you reflect on the above story, dear friends, I trust you too know Jesus as Lord, Saviour and friend. And that you’re aware that the best is yet to come, as we move on heaven bound!

If so, remember too that genuine love makes the difference on our journey!

May we live out 1John 4:11-12… ‘Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us’

• A question, dear readers – Is heaven ahead for you? Or is this life the best it gets?
• If you need someone to accompany you to the throne room of grace, I’d be honoured to do so.
• Let me know in the Comments or through my Contact Page – https://mamalava.wordpress.com/contact. The gospel of Jesus is explained in more detail in this post.

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Mama Lava delights to share openly and honestly from her heart. She sincerely believes in making the big world a bit smaller through caringly connecting, that Jesus wants to remove our anxieties and give us His joy. In her encouragements, Mama Lava regularly tells of life experiences from an unapologetically Christian viewpoint. Link: Mama Lava’s Back Porch (Doses of Maternal Love).
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