A Night to Remember

This past Saturday Brenda and I loaded the boys in a rental van to make the six hour trip to Zavalla, TX where I was to preach to a group of teenagers. We were going to turn around right after the service to make the return trip back to Paradise so we could be at home for church the next morning. I knew it would be a grueling day and an even more grueling night of driving.
God moved during the service. Many were drawn closer to Christ and one young man was saved. After the service we hung around to talk with the pastor and youth pastor before hitting the road again. The boys ran off to play basketball and expend some pent up energy. As we talked I kept eying my watch knowing we had a long trip ahead of us and we still needed to feed the boys dinner.
We drove thirty minutes into Lufkin where we stopped to eat dinner. Through the whole meal I kept my eye on the time. The waiter got several things wrong. Taylor was given steamed vegetables instead of a baked potato. They forgot to put cheese on Tanner’s cheeseburger. He also forgot a side dish we ordered. All of this kept me pretty uptight because all I could think about was the six hours of late night driving in front of us.
After the meal we had all the boys go to the restroom and then I corralled them to the parking lot to load up. Tanner and I were walking several steps behind everyone else. He got my attention and asked if he could talk to me alone. My initial reaction was that he was about to tattle on this brothers or confess something he had done wrong and knew he was about to be caught for. I was not prepared for the scene that was about to unfold.
My ten year little boy looked up with big tears in his eyes and told that God had spoken to him during the worship service telling him he needed to be saved. I was shocked. When Tanner was five years old he prayed asking Jesus to save him as Taylor led him in that prayer. So I asked him about his praying to be saved when he was five years old. He told me that he knew he was not ready back then. Sobbing in brokenness and obviously under God’s conviction I asked Tanner if he wanted to be saved right there in the parking lot. He nodded in affirmation.
We bowed our heads in the parking lot and he prayed to receive Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior. The tears of joy and brokenness flowed freely. After Tanner had finished praying he buried his tear stained cheeks into my chest and I hugged him. We embraced for a long time and I cherished that moment. It was a night to remember and I was taking in every little detail.
After hugging each other in joy for awhile Tanner wiped his cheeks and I told him he needed to walk over to the van where everyone was already seated inside and tell his mother and brothers. He walked over to Brenda first to tell her the good news and I rejoiced to see her crying and hugging Tanner. When Tanner got inside he told the rest of his brothers. This prompted little five year old Turner to start asking a lot of questions. I was so proud to hear Tanner witnessing and testifying to his little brother about how to be saved. Again this was shaping up to be a night to remember.
When I look back on the events of last Saturday night I am amazed and humbled by the power of God. Tanner experienced conviction somewhere between 7:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. that Saturday night. We then drove an additional thirty minutes putting us at the restaurant about 9:00 p.m. It took close to an hour to order, get our food, and to eat. It was around 10:00 p.m. or 10:15 p.m. when Tanner started walking through the parking lot and he told what he felt the Lord wanted him to do. Nearly two hours had passed between God’s initial conviction in Tanner’s heart and his following through to be saved. I am so grateful that God preserved that moment in Tanner’s heart that started back in Zavalla, TX.
God drew Tanner and kept drawing him to Himself for two hours after the service ended. Dozens of things could have distracted him and caused him to forget all about what God had put into his heart. God convicted, God drew, God preserved, and ultimately God saved my precious little boy. God gets all the glory.
I am thinking about a scripture that brings me great comfort and rejoicing in this time. [Jn 6:44] No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him on the last day. God drew Tanner to Himself. I look back on that moment and think about how tempted I was to go by myself on that trip. I think about how my boys ran off to play basketball after the service and how Tanner could have blown off everything he had just experienced in the worship service. I think about how he could have been distracted by the video games in the car or our dinner conversation about the Olympics and the long drive home. God preserved that moment and again it is a night I will long remember.
The next morning Tanner made that decision public before our church again with tears flooding down his cheeks. It was a night to remember. I recall the words to a song I heard some time ago. I never will forget that day when Jesus washed my sins away. Praise Him. Praise Him.