With Healing In His Wings

He walks into my classroom. The excitement is tangible, radiating from his face.

“Mrs. van’t Slot! You’ll never guess what happened!”

“Tell me,” I say.

“I got saved!” And he tells me the day when it was God’s time for him to turn his life over to Jesus.

My heart skips a beat for joy.

I think back of an earlier conversation we had; weeks ago. He stayed after class to talk.

“Miss, my life is such a mess. It’s because I’m not saved; don’t you think so? Can your life still be a mess even when you are saved?” This is a recurring theme in his conversations with me: “If I were saved, my life would not be such a mess.”

I point him to the Psalms.

“Look,” I say. “You know David, right?”

He does; he knows his Bible stories well.

I read Psalm 42 for him.

Why am I so discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad? […]
“O God, my rock”, I cry“why have you forgotten me?
Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies? […]
Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?”

He agrees with me that David was saved. We read together that it is also obvious that David’s life was still a mess at times.

“Your life can be a mess, whether you are saved or not”, I tell him. “But when you are saved, you know Who to hold onto, especially when your life feels like a mess”. And we read how David clings to his God: I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

And now he stands before me, the smile deep in his eyes. “It’s true, Mrs. van’t Slot! I got saved!”

“Wow. This makes me so very happy,” I tell him. And an old song rings through my heart – a hymn we sang in my church in England.

Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,
To every captive soul a full deliv’rance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;

The Comforter has come! True beauty happens here!

Will you pray with me? For him and for all the other students in our school who are just starting out on their journey with the Lord?