An Anchor in My Soul
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.
It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.
(Hebrews 6:19 NLT)
Every journey has a beginning. My physical journey began on May 19, 1962 when I was born, but the most important journey, my spiritual one, began in 1972 at the age of ten.
That was the morning my dad died. I woke up, realizing something was not quite right. We lived in a house with old-fashioned wooden shutters which were closed every evening. By the angle of the light coming through the slats, I could judge the time of day. This morning, the light immediately told me the morning was advanced. My first thought was, “Yippee, Mom forgot to wake me for school. I get to stay home today!” That happy delusion rapidly dissipated. Hearing voices, I peeked out of my bedroom door and saw my mom, my aunt, a family friend, and our doctor standing together talking in hushed tones.
My dad had been seriously injured in a car crash a couple of months earlier. He survived the crash but came out of the wreck with a bad contusion on his head. A short time later, a blood clot passed through his body and, when it reached his brain, the damage was done. He no longer recognized my sister or myself, only my mom. He was sent home when the hospital could do no more for him. It was simply a matter of time before he passed, but none of us had grasped that.
They must have heard the door open because, shortly afterwards, my aunt came into my bedroom. She sat on my bed, put her arms around me and said, “Your dad has gone to join gentle Jesus.” With that simple statement, my life changed forever.
After my aunt left the room, the next person who arrived on the scene was my seventeen-year old sister who took charge authoritatively and decisively. She told me not to cry and to stay away from our mom who had so much to deal with right then. Before anyone thinks badly of my poor sister, she was simply trying to be an adult and take care of our mother. I cannot imagine what she must have been going through. Unlike me, she was extremely close to my father and must have been devastated. She marched me off to the corner store with her to buy a loaf of bread. I obeyed, confused and bewildered, unaware the Bread of Life was about to reach out to me.
After we got back, I was left to my own devices. I corralled my dogs and wandered off to my playroom, a lost, lonely, desperately confused little girl with no-one to turn to. I loved reading and had a bookshelf crammed with books. For the first time, I noticed a Bible and a strange impulse made me pull it out. It fell open and I looked down to read John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16 NKJV).
As I read that verse, something stirred in my spirit. No angels appeared, no heavenly choirs sang, light did not flood the room, but quietly and gently, a small anchor was placed deep within my soul, the other end tethered securely to Him.
It took another fifteen years before I accepted Christ, but that anchor and tether held me firmly through times of struggle and loss until the time came for me to start walking with Him and fulfilling His plan for my life.
