A comforting thought.
I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a couple teenagers who are unchurched, for the most part. They are inexplicably sweet teenagers. They have faults, and I know they’re not perfect, but it just seems like God has protected them, put a hedge about them.
Someday in heaven, I’m going to ask God who has been praying for them. Because I’m convinced there’s some grandma up in heaven who wept tears for her children, and God looked down in time and pointed these two out. “See there? There’s where your prayer will be answered. There’s where all things will come together for my glory.”
And of course, I look at my own children. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that I can trust God, who loves my children far more than I do. If I died today, God would take care of them. When life seems to be difficult in their eyes, God is still caring for them. His hand is big, but kind. He gently leads the mothers with little ones.
This reminds me of the assistant pastor/youth leader in our church. Unsaved until they were adults with three kids, yet God somehow spared them the immorality and everything that was all around them in high school and college, kept their marriage intact, and is now training them for a great ministry. They have baggage, but not the baggage that is common among our generation. I marvel at the very specific ways God protected them for their current and future ministry.