Does Anybody Want to Testify?

Praise God for an old-fashioned church with testimony time! Without it, I wouldn’t have learned of uplifting experiences shared by several people last night. One was from a grandmother who told of her little grandson finding a baby bird that had fallen from the nest. She watched in fascination at the child’s attempts to save the scraggly, fragile bit of life. As the little bird opened its mouth, the child tried to feed it, giving it crumbs, grain, or whatever he found at hand.

Just as the grandmother was convinced it was a lost cause, the mother bird flew up, rewarding the gaping beak of her young with proper food, exhibiting an inner God-given concern that reflected the love of her Creator. Her heartfelt way of comparing this anecdote to God’s love for us, voice breaking at the realization that when hungry hearts reach out, He is ready to fill them with whatever is needed, brought fresh revelation and praises to God from the listeners.

Next a tender testimony told in the warm, country brogue of an older man was of his son’s praying over a mechanical problem with a car. It seems the son, an expert mechanic, had struggled repeatedly with removing a bearing from a vehicle. In his clumsy, but effective narrative, his father recounted the times of frustration his son had in his battle with the task, finally throwing up his hands at the project and just turning it over to the Lord in prayer.

Having put it out of his mind, he was stepping out the door to take his wife out to eat, when suddenly he stopped. “I can fix that car now! The Lord just revealed to me what to do!” He put the dinner date on hold, rushed to the automobile, and the bearing slid out almost effortlessly. The father wept in gratitude that his boy’s upbringing in the Lord had stayed with him and taught him to call on God. We were wiping our eyes, too.

A lady stood to her feet to say she was having lunch with a friend, when a young woman walked up and greeted the friend, who actually didn’t recognize her. After identifying herself as having been a classmate of the woman’s son, the newcomer explained she had cancer and had lost her hair. At the end of the conversation, she asked to be put on their prayer list. “I told her, ‘I’ll do more than that. I’ll pray for you right now,’” our church member exclaimed.

“We really felt the Lord move, and the girl was brought to tears,” she went on, “Then another woman walked up, saw her crying, and asked what was wrong. ‘Nothing!’ the girl said, “I was upset, but they prayed for me, and now I feel so good!’” We couldn’t help but feel good, too!