Celia shocked her Jewish rabbi father when she expressed her determination to become an actress. She was a young lady of poise and charm and soon found an opportunity to train for the ballet in her Old World homeland. After her first season she came to America where the bright lights of New York were beckoning.
Celia starred in the musical, “Blossom Time,” and from then on she tasted of success. She experienced the intoxicating delight of being sought after and acclaimed. One of her admirers was Abe, a New York business man, and their courtship soon led to their marriage.
Life now held everything she had ever asked of it, and more. That it could also hold sorrow and bitterness she would have refused to believe; for others, perhaps, but not for her.
Only five years later Celia had become the shadow of her former self, with all the joy and sparkle gone out of her. What had happened? She and Abe felt their happiness complete having been blessed with two beautiful children, but their joy had been short-lived after David, their first child, had died after an attack of pneumonia. Then Rachel, a beautiful little girl of three, had been killed by a hit-and-run driver.
Abe sought to drown his grief in business and social activities, but Celia would not be comforted. For months she withdrew from all social life and brooded over her loss.
It was not until their third child, little Joseph, was placed in her arms that Celia began to live again. Ever mindful of the two little ones who had been snatched from her, she guarded this boy as her own life.
Then quite without warning, while her husband was away on business, this baby became ill with a mastoid complication. The doctor held out little hope; the child might live through the night, he might not.
It was after the doctor left that Celia, standing over her baby’s crib with tormented eyes and haggard face cried out, “How can there be a God?” No just and merciful Being, she reasoned, would take her babies from her one after the other. It never entered her head to turn to her devout father or look into the teachings of the Jewish religion. The ritual of the Synagogue could not, she felt, help her now.
During that fateful evening a knock came at Celia’s door. She opened it to find the warm-hearted lady upstairs.
“I heard your baby crying,” she said, “and came down to see if there’s anything I can do.” Moved by her neighbor’s sympathetic concern, Celia asked her to be seated and sobbed out her story, ending with the words, “And there seems to be no hope.”
“We must never give up hope,” replied her friend kindly. “You know we have a Father in heaven who never forsakes those who trust Him. If we confess His dear Son as our Saviour and pray to Him in faith, He has promised to hear and answer our prayers. Then, taking a small New Testament from her purse, she read: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.... Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.” John 14:1,131Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)
13And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13).
“And now I am going to pray for your baby,” she went on, “and you must pray for him, too. But you must remember to ask in the name of Jesus, your true but rejected Messiah, as the Bible says.”
Jesus! Celia winced, for that name had ever been a forbidden one in her childhood home. But in spite of all this, her heart was strangely stirred as she now listened to this godly woman pray for her baby’s recovery.
As soon as she was left alone, Celia made a momentous decision. She would do anything if it would mean the saving of her child. She dropped to her knees as she had seen her neighbor do and cried, “O God-of-the-lady-upstairs! I don’t know anything about Thee, but if you spare my baby’s life, I’ll do anything Thou shalt ask.”
At that moment she sensed a Presence in the room and her heart was filled with wonder for she knew it could be none other than the lady’s Jesus. She ran to the crib and saw that the child had fallen into a natural sleep. Skeptical, she laid her hand on his head; it was no longer hot to her touch. From that hour her baby began to mend.
At her first opportunity Celia bought a Bible and diligently read for herself. God led her step by step until the day came when she saw that this same Jesus, who had been so misunderstood and rejected by her people was in very truth the Promised One of Israel foretold by Moses and the Hebrew Prophets. She believed and confessed Him as her Saviour and Lord. The God-the-lady-upstairs had proved to be the only Saviour for her.
ML-08/19/1979