It was a crisp Sunday afternoon in mid-autumn. Sonya lifted her hand and caught a red leaf as it floated downward to the dusty, unpaved street. She was glad for this quiet part of the city and for a chance to be alone after chattering all afternoon with her university friends.
Sonya lived several years ago in the country of Moldavia, a country that borders on Romania, and whose name got changed to Moldova in 1991 when it got its independence and the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic came to its end. But at the time of this story, Sonya’s father was a high-ranking Communist official, and her mother was also very active in the Communist party.
As Sonya walked along, she began to hear music — beautiful singing. It seemed to come from a yard completely surrounded by a high board fence with a heavy wooden gate. She had never heard such sweet melodic song before, so full of warmth and joy. She pushed the gate open a crack and looked inside.
In the middle of the yard sat a modest house that served as a meeting place for a Christian group. Sonya could see that the house was bursting with people because a large overflow crowd stood in the yard.
Some of them noticed Sonya as she peeked in through the gate. “Come in!” they said. Sonya followed timidly as some men pushed a narrow path through the crowd for her. Once inside the building they helped her find a place to stand where she could see and hear more easily.
Although at first somewhat fearful, Sonya quickly found herself caught up in the spirit of the meeting. She enjoyed the singing of the crowd immensely. Then when the preacher began to speak, she listened attentively. For the first time in her life she heard the Bible read and the gospel message presented — God’s love to lost, ruined man in the gift of His dear Son. She heard that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and that salvation is only obtained through His blood shed in death upon the cross.
At the close of the service, the speaker invited any to remain who wished to be saved and to follow the Lord Jesus. Compelled by an inner urge, the work of the Spirit of God, Sonya pushed her way to the front to join four other young people.
Then with tears streaming down her young face, she told them all:
“Friends, all my life I have been told there is no God. In school I was told that religion was for the old, uneducated, illiterate and superstitious babushkas who were still living in the past. In my atheistic home, my parents scoffed at the idea of God and ridiculed those who believed in Him.
“Yet my life was not happy. It was empty and without purpose. In my despair I turned to my friends and told them about my emptiness and search for some kind of meaning and fulfillment in my life.
“Some of my friends sympathized with me and confessed that they, too, were going through the same difficulties, that their lives were just as empty and meaningless as mine.
“Other friends of mine laughed at me and ridiculed my search for some meaning to life. They told me that one only goes through life once, so I should get everything I could out of it — eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we will all be dead. But I was not satisfied with their advice, and I continued my search for something that would fill the void in my heart.
“Today, dear friends,” she continued, “for the first time in my life I found exactly what I was searching for. I heard that there is a God, that He loves me, and that He will forgive my sins. I can have peace and joy and wonderful hope of eternal life. My search has come to an end. This is what I want. And from today on I want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.”
When Sonya left the meeting that night, she had no idea how soon her new commitment to the Lord Jesus would be tested. It happened as soon as she
got home.
Usually her parents paid little attention to her. They did not question where she spent her time, nor seem to care when she came home very late. But this night her parents were waiting for her.
“Where have you been?” her father asked. The parents’ unexpected attentiveness caught Sonya off guard, but she managed to answer honestly. “I have been to a religious service.”
Both parents stared at her in silence, their burning eyes reflecting both shock and amazement. “And what happened there?” her father finally said in icy tones.
“I became a Christian!” Sonya found strength to reply.
At this both angry parents stood up and began to yell, mocking Sonya and cursing her. When her father became so enraged that he began to strike her, she had to flee from home.
Sonya did not come back home until her parents had cooled off. After several days they permitted her to return, but she lived under the cloud of their bitterness. Why shouldn’t they be bitter? they reasoned. Their only child would never make them proud of her as a good atheistic Communist. She had “ruined her life.”
Shortly after, officials at the university heard of Sonya’s conversion. They tried to force her to reject her faith and give up Christ. But her Savior stood by her and strengthened her. When she refused to give up the Lord Jesus, they expelled her from the university.
Sonya’s steadfastness brought her persecution from school and government officials and rejection from her relatives and former friends. But to her, Jesus, the Son of God, who loved her and gave Himself for her, was her dearest Friend, worth far more than anything she had lost. The great desire of her heart now was to live for Him, to follow Him, and to wait for His coming from heaven. She could have said, with the Apostle Paul, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:88Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (Philippians 3:8)). Does the Lord Jesus Christ mean anything to you? I hope you know Him as the Friend Sonya found Him to be.
Messages of God’s Love 4/25/2021