When our oldest daughter turned 13, we moved from a beloved home so that I could take a new call. What I heard as the voice of God, she heard as law, as pain.
Her anger knew no bounds. She abandoned her intelligence and her gift of singing. She refused the company of believers.
I prayed, and prayed some more. Her heart slowly opened. She took up song again, and faith. One day I asked what made the change. “Well, Mom,” she replied, “It was your love, and I suppose God.”
This God will come again to make all things new, and—along the way—make that promise real.
This message was adapted from “Coming Home” written by Karen Bates-Olson that first appeared in the December 2010 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.