Another glorifying miracle has happened in the Lebanon Church of Christ. God is collecting his lost children, even those who have grown up following traditional Christianity. Nicolas is the father of Said, who got baptized a year ago.
Nicolas came to his son’s baptism and didn’t fight his son’s decision even though the whole event was strange to him because Said was already baptized as a child! Then he had a painful accident that kept him at the hospital for months. That crisis broke him down because he felt death was so close to a man of his age. When I sat down with him to talk, he realized that his relationship with God was not right!
Nicolas has not had an easy life. I can describe him as a man of hardships. Life was cruel on him since he was 10 years old. His father was kidnapped and he had to work to support his mother and siblings. Then when he married, his wife couldn’t handle having a special needs child. Her severe depression led to cancer and she died, leaving three boys and one special girl behind. In those days, the family members accused his daughter of being a curse and the cause of his wife’s death, and so he was left with no help when he needed it the most. The harshness of people made him an angry man, focused on raising his boys to be tough and hard workers because life is tough and unfair.
However, what looked impossible in our eyes was possible to God. All the walls of bitterness and anger melted in tears of repentance upon studying the Word of God and seeing God’s love towards him. At his baptism, he cried the whole time, thanking God that he left him alive that long and didn’t take him before he knew the truth. Truly this testimony reminds me of the time “ When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible .” (Matthew 19:25-26). Nicolas taught us not to look with our eyes on people because those we judge as far from the Word might be closer than we think!
