Last year I did a blog on my transition from observing coincidences as an atheist to recognising God-incidences having become a Christian in 1987. I finished the blog: ‘I have come to realise all of the evidence I have seen so far since those fateful two words ‘Follow Jesus’ – seem to be right, but they were not only the best thing I could do for my son, they were the best thing I could do for me, my whole family, my friends and everybody I know.’ Here I’ll focus on evidence of God’s love for my whole family that helped me understand the unbelievable patience, love and mercy of God.
The evidence concerns my biological dad, Jack Stansfield. During the 2nd World War, he had been a tank commander seeing battle duty in Normandy and Germany. Aged 21 he was extremely lucky to survive being hit in the throat with shrapnel. After the war he worked in production engineering and management jobs until retirement in 1987.
When I was born I was christened and remember aged 4 being taken to Sunday school, but we were not a church-going family. As a teenager I remember Dad warning me the church was full of hypocritical, judgmental Christians. I was surprised therefore, when in 1987 I shared with Dad that I had become a Christian, that he said he was really pleased for me, but that having seen many of his friends blown up in Normandy and Germany that he could only see Jesus Christ as a good man, not as the Son of God: ‘why oh why would God allow the destruction of so many of his friends and the innocent holocaust victims??’ As a lover of nature and bird watching, I could see for Dad that God was embodied by David Attenborough.
Move forward to October 1st 2000: Mum had died 7 months earlier and Dad had been taken into Ronkswood hospital five days earlier in a coma suffering from pneumonia. I had had a nagging feeling that God wanted me to go from the service at Redhill Baptist Church and read to my Dad. I was terrified, how would the nurses and patients view me reading from the bible to a man in a coma? Worse still, I had no idea what God wanted me to read! The sermon was about Peter’s attempt to step out of the boat onto the water to follow Jesus. At the end of the service a good friend walked over to me and said, ‘Kim, I believe God wants you to go to the hospital to talk to your Dad’.
When I arrived Dad had been moved to a small, private room where he lay motionless looking peaceful. I explained to him what I thought God wanted me to do and started desperately flicking through my Bible. It just seemed to open at Job 39 and I started to read ‘Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?’ At the end of that first verse Dad lifted himself onto his elbows and pushed his chest up, and then slumped back, motionless. I realised I had just witnessed God asking my Dad whether he knew who was the loving creator of the nature that he loved. I’d seen Dad offer his heart and soul to the God who had loved him from the beginning of time. I finished reading Chapter 39, told him I loved him and left. I was contacted early next morning to say he had died earlier. God waited patiently for the point where Dad was willing to listen to the truth about God’s love for him and His creation. As it says in 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV):
“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”