Let Your Fingers do the Talking
Yesterday I went to get my nails done. I was only planning on getting a pedicure because I had my 7 year old twin boys and my 4 year old girl with me. But once I saw where the conversation was going I said, “Go ahead and do my finger nails too.” In the beginning I was just talking to the nicely dressed lady sitting next to me who must have been about in her 70’s. She commented on how well behaved my children were being. Then we talked about how many children I had, and then about how many grandchildren I had, and then we got to the part where my testimony began. “Do you want to hear how good God is?” I asked her. What else could she say but…okay? So I started to share with her, “When I was a child I went through a lot of abuse. If you were to have asked me what I wanted when I grew up I would have said ‘I just want a typical family with a yellow house and a white picket fence,’ because I saw all that as being normal. You know, the ‘Leave it to Beaver’ Family.” She nodded as I continued, “But then I learned that when you trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, one day you’re able to look back, as I have, and see that you have 6 kids, 3 grandkids, and a yellow two story house with a white picket fence. Because when you put God first, one day you can look back and see that you have more than you could have ever imagined.” Then I included, “But I also have to remember the things He blesses me with are just things, and eventually it will all be left behind because I can’t take them with me. What does matter in the end is not how much stuff I have but what I do with the truth of the gospel.” I went on to say, “Those things that God allowed me to go through as a child were meant to be used to bring others to Christ. Then I told her about the ‘God of all comfort and compassion’ from 1 Corinthians. I said, “All those things that happened to me didn’t catch God by surprise, He saw all of it.” Then I said, “But we all have that choice in life, to take those things that we have gone through, or are going through, and dwell on them or decide to use them to bring glory to the Lord.” Then I noticed that they were finishing up with her nails and so I said, “Let me ask you something. Are you going to heaven?” She replied, “I think so.” I asked, “Can you write down a couple of scriptures?” She reached in her purse to get a pen and I said, “John 3:16-17 and Romans 10:9” I told her, “John 3:16-17 says, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” I noticed that when I was saying the verse she was mouthing it along with me. I said to her, “Oh, you already know it?” And she said, “I forgot that I even knew that verse, it has been such a long time. I probably had to memorize it as a child or something.” I said, “That’s because His word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.” I went on, “It also says in the Bible that ‘My word will not return void’. Do you ever wonder why the Bible is the bestselling book in the world? It’s because it is God’s word and ultimately His word will reach every part of this world.” While she was paying the lady for doing her nails I said, “Now, when you go home don’t forget to read Romans 10:9.” She said that she would and thanked me for sharing with her before she left.
Then to my surprise the one who was doing my nails says to me, “I am Buddhist.” I asked her, “Do you know anything about Buddha?” She said, “Well I really don’t know much. I just practice it because my father practiced it.” I said, “Do you know Buddha had many wives and many children and he didn’t even take care of them properly?” She said, “No I didn’t know that...I only practice it because that’s what my father practices.” Meanwhile my 4 year old daughter was asking to get her nails done too. I saw that I needed some more time with this one and so I said, “Sure…do her nails too.” Then I asked the lady working on my nails if she had a Bible. She said no, so I asked, “Do you read in Vietnamese?” She said yes. So I got someone I know from a Vietnamese church on the phone to help translate and she told the one doing my nails that she’d get her a Bible and come visit her. God is so good! That Vietnamese church that I recently spoke at was now my connection to a translator for anyone that speaks Vietnamese. I thanked the lady for doing our nails and she thanked me for sharing the Lord. Then I praised God for His goodness. “Abba, Father, All things are possible with You...even when we get our nails done.”
Brothers and sisters we need to make the most of EVERY opportunity. Galatians 5:13 says, “For you brother, have been called to liberty; only don’t use that liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” No, I didn’t serve anyone physically this time but I was serving them the word of God. Not using the liberty that I have just for myself but thinking beyond my box. We have to get beyond our boxes. We are not here only for our own pleasures; we are here to serve Him and to tell others about our Lord. Let me ask you something brothers and sisters. If you saw someone drowning would you not throw them a life preserver? Then why aren’t we throwing the life-preserver, Jesus Christ, to the world? They are drowning in their sins and they need Jesus. We have that life-preserver in our hand and we need to throw it to them right now! even when we are getting our nails done.
†
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper the thing for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11*)