Divine Encounter
By Laura Pedota
I was born in Italy and grew up in the city of Rome. My
mother was a very devout Catholic. In the early years of my life, her example
trained me to value and exercise prayer. She took my brothers and me to Mass
every Sunday and on holidays. We prayed to the saints, but I also talked to
Jesus. I was a very introverted girl , timid and insecure.
At age 24 I met the man who became my husband. He was from Denver, Colorado.
He knew my father’s sister who lived near Denver. She had given him a package
to deliver to my family while in Rome. The first time I saw him was when he
came to my home. We spent a week together sightseeing. We continued our
relationship by corresponding with one another with the help of a grammar and a
good dictionary. A year later he came back to Rome to marry me.
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When I left Italy I didn’t think I would ever go back. The pain I felt when I
separated from family and friends turned out to be more intense than anything I
had ever experienced. I didn’t know the man I married nor the language he
spoke. Accustomed to the hasty life of a big city like Rome, the dullness and
solitude of country living in the farmhouse outside of Denver, felt like a tomb
to me. I was very homesick; the winters were so long, so gloomy, so much
snow…
I didn’t know how to drive a car, so I spent many long, long
days at home alone. I filled the free hours of the day watching television.
(That’s how I learned English.)
I longed for a baby.
Two and a half years later, after two miscarriages, our son
was born. The birth of our daughter followed 18 months after that. At age 29,
an internal hemorrhage caused by an ovarian cyst, precipitated the removal of
the uterus and one ovary. Our little girl was only three months old.
During the succeeding months the general feeling of
loneliness to which I had become accustomed, turned into deep depression and
then into an emotional breakdown that finally led to hospitalization. The lady
in the bed next to mine was one day transferred to Pueblo (the locality of a
famous Mental Institution). That news awoke terror in my heart. It drove me-in
desperation- to the Hospital Chapel. At the feet of a naked cross, the only
“image” at hand, I poured my heart out to Jesus. I cried for help for me and
for my two children in need of their mom. He heard me. A week later, to his
own astonishment and that of my husband, the doctor released me.
Years went by without connecting the prayer time in the little Chapel and my
release from the hospital. In 1970 my father died in Italy, after a long
battle with lung cancer. His demise affected me deeper than expected.
He had been a smoker all of his life and so was I.
The grief I was experiencing turned slowly into depression
following my decision to give up cigarettes. (I visited my father just before
his death. Cancer had reduced him to nothing, he looked like a walking skeleton;
that memory disturbed me every time I lit a cigarette)
A Minister was offering a seminar on ‘how to quit smoking’
and I attended it for a while but I didn’t stick to it till the end. When I
reached the place that if I smoked I would vomit and if I didn’t I would go
crazy, I knew I was sicker than I wanted to admit. However, the visit to the
psychiatrist proved useless. He said he couldn’t help me. I went to Church but
found no help there; beside, I was so confused, which one was the right
Church? From the time I had arrived in America I marveled at the many different
Churches I had found here and they all said they were the right one. That can’t
be, I reasoned, somebody must be wrong…but which one is really the right one? I
had no way out.
Then I called that Pastor, he came to the house and
introduced me to the plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. Pointing to the words
written on a little track called “The Four Spiritual Laws”, he proceeded to
explain how sin separates every human being from God.
“God created us in His own Image to have abundant life.” He read. “ He didn’t
make us robots to automatically love and obey Him, but gave us a will and a
freedom of choice. The choice to disobey God and to go our own willful way ,
results in separation from God. Because we were created to find our
completeness in Him, this separation leaves a vacuum inside of us that screams
to be filled.”
“Every individual” he expounded ‘ tries to bridge this gap with good works,
religion, morality, philosophy etc., but to no avail. God however, provided the
only remedy: the Cross! You see dear”, he went on “God is just and loving at
the same time. In His justice He had to condemn sin with the highest penalty:
death. ‘The wages of sin is death…’ says the Bible in Romans 6:23. It also
says that the soul that sins must die (Ezekiel 18:4) and that there is no
remission of sin without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). Death is the
sentence that the Supreme Judge of the Universe passed on sin. We mortals
cannot pay that penalty any other way. Our good works or self inflicted
punishment won’t do it, for God’s justice demands death. But God is also
Love”, his gentle eyes looked deep into mine, “Love wouldn’t permit the
eternal destruction of humanity, the highest of all His creation. So He had to
find a way whereby both Justice and Love could be satisfied. That’s why he sent
His Son Jesus, God in human form, to take our place and die in our stead. After
the Cross Jesus rose from the grave. Having paid the penalty for our sins, He
bridged the gap between God and man. The innocent, sinless Son of man paid the
penalty that belongs to you and I, the guilty ones.”
“You see Laura”, he continued “Eternal Life is a gift. You
need only to repent of your sins, believe, and invite Jesus to come and live in
you through the Holy Spirit. The invitation is given in Revelation 3:20. Jesus
says: ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me.’ “
What I just heard fascinated me. I prayed the prayer of
repentance with him, without feelings or understanding what was going on: "Lord
Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need your forgiveness. I believe that You
died for my sins. I want to change and turn from my sinful ways . I invite You
to come in me and to take control of my life. I put You on the throne of my
being. I want to trust you as my Savior and follow you as my Lord."
Although I didn’t quite understand what I did, the Lord
proved His faithfulness to me. He began driving my attention to articles in
paper and magazines. I read about the Jesus movement, how drugs addicts would
turn to Jesus and He would deliver them, without withdrawal pains. A song from
the radio drew my attention to the point that I would keep on hearing it even in
my sleep. The words were: “put your hand in the hand of the man who stills the
waters; put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.
God also placed all kind of people in my path that reinforced
the message I heard.
One Sunday my family and I went to lunch at the Perry’s Boy
café in Monterey. By the cash register of this restaurant there was a bowl
filled with minute pamphlets, resembling little Bibles. They were Christian
tracks. I was sitting in the sunshine outside waiting for the rest of the
family to come out when this little girl came up to me with her little hands
full of those pamphlets. “Lady do you want to read?” she said, putting some of
them in my lap. She was all dressed up in Sunday attire, so I asked her: “Did
you go to Church?”
“Yes”, she replied.
“What Church do you go to?” I continued.
She didn’t answer but went on skipping and playing. Then she
came back, put one of the pamphlets in my hand saying, ‘‘this is my Church”; and
ran away.
I know the Lord used that little girl as an angel to speak to
me, because only He could have known the questioning in my heart about Churches
and denominations.
Soon after, as I read the brochure, I noticed that it
contained the plan of salvation just like the leaflet with the 4 spiritual laws
that the Pastor had used to lead me to Christ. This time though, as I read it,
something happened deep inside my being: suddenly I knew that my sins had been
forgiven and that I had passed from death to life. Later, as I began to read
and understand the Bible a little more, I learned that the True Church is a
Living Organism and not a human organization. Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone
and every born again individual is a living stone. Together we are built up
into a Holy Habitation for God, through the power and the works of the Holy
Spirit. Indeed The Lord had spoken to me through that little girl when she said
to me: “this is My Church!”
Thirty five years have come and gone since my first encounter
with Jesus. The insatiable hunger for the Word of God that characterized my
new found life, coupled with the development of a consistent prayer discipline,
has strengthened my personal relationship with the Lord. The Holy Spirit has
taught me a lot through studying and meditating in the Scriptures and through
life experiences. Having been called to teaching, I have shared some of them at
various occasions and in different locations. My desire today is to finish the
course the Lord ha assigned to me, as I pray that I will fulfill His purpose and
His calling on my life.
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