July 25, 2021 - INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE HEART

By Doug Bennyson

How God Answers Innocent Faith

My brother has two darling daughters. One of them is six while the other turned two the other day. We love them a lot. Last year when I got married my brother and his family came over for my wedding. His visa stamping got delayed and he had to make a tough call and had to decide to make his family stay in India or go back to the US. As his process was taking a while, He had to make a rough call of deciding to send his family back. I went with him to drop them at the airport. One of the most tragic sites I have seen was when his six-year-old was leaving. She held onto her dad tight, and she said, “I don’t want to leave you and go away.” As she was crying bitterly my brother told her “Don’t worry. Things here would be done and I will come back home and see you.” But she couldn’t buy that answer and she cried all the way inside. It broke my heart to see how she never wanted to be separated from her father who she knew all her life. I can never know how much it hurt my brother, but it definitely did hurt me a lot.  

After they went back to the US, COVID hit and I and my brother were stranded in India. Every day when he Facetimed his family in the US, she always asked the same question, “When are you coming home?” My brother told her ask Jesus and He will bring me home. As time started to pass by, she stopped asking and was restraining herself from asking the same question. One day she opened up and asked, “Dad! I’m asking Jesus every day to bring you home in my prayers, but why is He not bringing you home?”  

I remember talking to my brother that night and asked him how He was doing. And I could never forget the response he gave me in His despair, “How would I answer a 6-year-old with that kind of question? You and I know why but she can’t understand why even if I explained it to her.” All my brother could do is encouraging her to pray every day and not lose heart. I remember praying for my niece that night and said, “God none of us know how to answer her question but I know you do. Help her not lose heart in You and make her understand the only way you can.” 

Four months passed away we kept trying to get back to Canada and US. I finally got my ticket home, and we were trying to get my brothers ticket and we were trying everything possible. I remember that night we almost gave up and we wanted to try one last time. And by an absolute miracle the transaction went through, and he got his ticket back home.  

We were all super elated but the one who the most excited was my niece. She screamed saying, “Guess what Dad, 5 minutes ago I went and asked Jesus again and He answered me by getting you a ticket home.” God's timing was absolutely perfect, and I believe my niece will always remember and she will feel that it was her prayer that made way for my brother’s return.

"But as for me, I trust in You, LORD, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand;” Psalm 31:14-15