The Miracle of Redemption

 I was hurting, hurting in ways I didn't fully understand. Situations in life had left me feeling unneeded, unwanted, and put on a shelf. On the inside, I didn't really know if I had what it took, and I wasn't entirely sure who I was. I didn't really know how deep I hurt because I didn't let myself feel it all the way yet, I had earned a little respect, as someone who understood renewal, and I needed to be solid, and help others, or so I thought. We had been invited to a training week event, and I knew from experience that like most things Steve Stutzman planned that I would enjoy it and find to much to process and to little time to do it, so, we went. That's when I met him, the one and only Bobby Eaton. At first, I thought, another kind Mennonite man in his early 60s or late 50s, I exchanged cordial small talk and retreated to a comfortable chair in the other end of the room, for I was tired, and had been up with the dairy farmers, even though I am not one of them. He came and talked with me, and took interest in who I actually am, so we talked, and I learned he had written a book. A book about who Bobby was. Well, I know who Bobby is, as the week went on, he cried with me, and he told me who I am, later he gave me a note of a lot of those same words, and it meant a ton, I still have that note, and no I won't share it here in public, so far, only close friends and family have gotten to see it. He has the heart of a father. He allows God to use his body to show God's fatherly love for you. It was so good for me, and I know Bobby would want you to know that it wasn't him, but the Him, our Father. I picked up one of Bobby's books, and had him write that same note in it for me, and we went home. 

 Last night, I read the book. I got angry, at the things done to the little boy Bobby, and then at the things Bobby the man did. I teared up, at the hurt the little boy experienced, and at the hurt his family experienced. The book is good, you should get yourself a box of tissues, and the book, and settle down when you have no other commitments pressing and just soak it up. Then, when you meet the man Bobby today, you will realize that there is a miracle in all this. A renewal has been done. Bobby would probably say, it has been started. Bobby is humble like that. How can a man who has never experienced, real, true fathering growing up, be such a good "father figure" to people who he has only known for 3 days? Bobby would say, It's all God, and as much as I admire him today, I concur. I also say that he has an amazing wife, she is still with him, still loyal to him. I admire her determined willingness to just turn to God, hang tight, and wait on him, during her darkest hours. I can't fathom how I would do in that situation, it has to be God again. So, go and get this book here: https://theboyinthewindow.com/

 Based on what I understand of the atheist religion, and yes I call it that, because all people worship something or someone in my opinion. They do not believe in the existence of Bobby Eaton. There must be something there, a thing, where he is still an Eaton in the bad way, born and raised as one, and he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and got successful yes, but he must still be an abrasive hypocrite, he must still be angry somehow, their religion does not explain or account for the personality change, rather the "new creature" we have here. There is a powerful redemptive power that worked in Bobby, a complete renewing. He is a living and breathing proof that God's renewing works. The same Christ, who, knowing that he would literally be pierced in the side, came alongside humanity. That Christ, who was dead, and then pierced in the side went to the grave, and came back renewed, as in, alive again. His side was pierced, the scar remained, and yet, he still comes alongside you. He puts his arm around you. That is, if you'll let him. His side was pierced for you, and on some level, because of your sin, by you, and yet, he wants to come alongside you and call you brother, or sister. Will you let him? This is the power working in Bobby, he has merely been renewed by God. Christ came alongside him, and Bobby became his brother. Now, Bobby acts a whole lot like Jesus' little brother. I am concerned that Bobby will be uncomfortable with all the things I said about him, because he doesn't seem to like being the focus, but, this is all glory to God. Bobby really only gave God permission to redeem him, and God took that permission with gladness and did an amazing work.