Words of Hope

By Dr. Jon Wilson

A Community of Love

I’m sure you have heard or have been reading about John Walker. John Walker is the American from Marin County in Northern California who was captured for fighting with the Taliban.

A Time magazine article indicated that his parents decided not to push their Christian faith down his throat, so they raised him with little or no faith at all and let him decide for himself. He was never exposed to the real, true genuine Christian faith. They never made him go to church.

He never heard or experienced the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the lives or the love of people. Eventually, he found Islam, ultimately finding himself fighting and perhaps killing Americans in Afghanistan.

Something always fills a vacuum. If our children have been exposed to the truth and experienced genuine love, the Bible says that in time, they will come back to that truth; but if they have never really experienced true Christianity, what is there to come back to?

Our family has spent much of the entire last month in the hospital. Our daughter-in-law in Santa Barbara had to have an emergency C-section, two weeks premature, because of problems with the baby. Ella Claire and mom are currently doing fine.

Dean and Susan have a "home church" in their home. Fifteen people spent the better part of three weeks praying and reaching out in little gestures of love. At the crucial moments in the hospital, we joined hands and prayed.

Hospital employees said they had never seen anything like it. They could not believe all these people—young and old—singles, parents, and grandparents reaching out in love, all joining one heart and one mind in prayer and love.

There is no one pastor to this "home church." They all are pastors to each other, and new people are coming every week because they see the love, not in one person, but in the whole community and want to know more. They come out of curiosity and they stay when they see and feel the love of God in action.

But the love and prayers were not just in Southern Californian. I shed tears several times as I read e-mail from people all across America and in several countries of the world; of people who had their whole churches praying for baby Ella Claire Wilson.

Some years ago, I used to go and read once a week for a blind lady. She wanted someone to read the Bible and her mail for her. I was a full-time seminary student, plus Youth Ministry at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, but I did that a few hours a week and loved it. As I would read to her, phone calls would always interrupt us. She would grab a clothesline and guide herself across the room to the phone and she would talk for a few minutes as I occupied myself reading on in the Bible.

One day she said, "You’re probably wondering what I am doing on the phone all the time." I said, "Well, the thought did go through my mind." She said, "You see, I am 83 years old and I have not been able to do much in the church anymore because of my blindness. I cannot go out so now my ministry to the church is one of love and prayer. I pray many hours a day for people and we see great miracles." I didn’t respond for a few minutes because I couldn’t talk. If she could have seen my face, she would have seen that my cheeks were wet with tears—just as they were in Santa Barbara when we joined hands and prayed for a premature baby going through surgery.

Would the world be different if John Walker or Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein had experienced that prayer or seen that kind of love in action? Would some of you? It’s never too late to become a part of a praying community of love.

Jon Wilson lives in Calabasas and is senior pastor of Canoga Park Presbyterian Church, 22103 Vanowen, Canoga Park. You can hear him speak at 9 or 10:45 a.m. on Sundays. Call the church office for details at (818) 883-3510.