Last weekend, I preached the funeral for the man that I had baptized about a month prior. He was 79. The story of what God did in his life was quite miraculous and I thought others might be encouraged from hearing his story.
At the funeral, his daughter shared that her dad hadn’t been an affectionate man. She recalled the first hug from her daddy was a somewhat forced hug at her wedding day when the photographer had them pose. She shared that while they knew he loved them he was what you’d expect from a man who lived much of his life on the railroad. He was a hard man.
His daughter, a member of our church, had been praying for her father to come to know Jesus daily for 23 years. But up until last summer she hadn’t even been able to get him to come to church but a handful of times. But I believe with his health failing he was beginning to ponder some end of life questions. Yet, he still seemed relatively closed off to the gospel.
Then in November he found himself in the hospital and unresponsive. The doctors were going to give him a couple more hours and then put him on a ventilator. But then something miraculous happened. He woke up and was fully alert. And as soon as he was coherent he said, “I thank the Lord for bringing me back” with tears in his eyes. Later he would tell the story to a grandson and say that God had saved his life. That was a Thursday. He was discharged on Saturday–partly because he strongly encourage them to let him out so he could go to church.
There was a noticeable heart change which had taken place as well. When I went over to his house to share the gospel with him he immediately responded (I think God had already done this work) and shared how he wanted to follow Christ in baptism. His heart was immediately turned towards his wife, wanting her to know the Lord also. And this “hard man” had turned into a tender and compassionate man.
He began coming to services and attending our Seek Groups and devouring the Word. As he was dying a couple weeks ago his granddaughters were reading Scripture to him and he was comforted by it, often with a tear in his eye as he was overwhelmed by the goodness of God in his life.
He wanted to show everyone that he was a follower of Jesus and testify to the greatness of what God did in saving his life. And so even though his health was failing and he was frail and weak he wanted to be baptized. This was such a testimony of God’s grace and goodness. He answered the prayers of a daughter who had prayed for so many years. When we did the “Who’s Your One” campaign last Spring, Ed was somebody’s “one”. And the last few months of his life the life-changing power of God was on display.
This isn’t a story to encourage someone to wait until they are 79. We should grab ahold of grace whenever we can. But this is a story to encourage you to continue praying for beloved unbelievers. And it’s a testimony to say that God really truly does change hearts.
Old dogs can learn new tricks when Jesus is at work. Ed is a testimony to the grace and power of God. Be encouraged.
