Emily Belle Freeman, February 27, 2020

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Just before I walked into the sacred grove I sat on a wooden picnic bench that was in desperate need of sanding down and listened to my good friend share his witness of that story.

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And why don’t we share our witness of that story with our friends more often?

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This is a time when people are walking away from the important things. A time when questioning leads away from God, instead of closer to Him.

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There was a time when hard questions and division and doubt lead a boy into a grove of trees. Those questions lead him to God. To the restoration of His church.

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It was a heartfelt question that led to this living church. And living means messy, and growing, and progressing, because restoration requires sanding down and revealing the old and revelation is tricky to get right sometimes.

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I sit on that old wooden bench, warped and peeling, and I can see how restoration would be messy.

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And then my friend says the words I know I will never forget.

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The most important truth of the restoration is that God answers prayers from obscure boys of little consequence.

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And this is what I know. God saw that obscure boy who read one verse and wanted to know something. The same way He sees you and me.

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He saw how messy he would make things. How he would try, and how he would make mistakes, and He knew how messy restoration would be. And He still spoke to him! Because He knew that boy wouldn’t walk away. Not after the tar and feathers. Not after losing the little one. Not after being chased down and tormented and taunted. Not ever.

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That obscure boy of little consequence wouldn’t back down because He saw God in the mess.

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He wouldn’t walk away from the grove.

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Neither will I.