The assurance of Jesus

My wife recently read a book about the church's responsibility to environmental stewardship called "Saving God's Green Earth" by Tri Robinson.

On pp. 40-41 in the book, Robinson describes an encounter he had in nature that demonstrated the existence of God. The story starts out with Robinson at a musical at a church:

During the musical, there was a multimedia presentation that made a lasting impact on me. Now, you must realize that this was in the mid 1970s, and the cutting edge of media in those days were two slide projects that faded in and out simultaneously. During the presentation, the choir performed a song taken from Psalm 42 where David was crying out to the Lord, 'As the deer pants for water, so my soul longs for you.' As they were singing this song, the slide projectors would fade in and out images of nature. However, the projector kept returning often to this one picture of a doe with this deep penetrating gaze. For me, the deer representated Jesus -- and that image grabbed me like no other. I was so taken by that picture, realizing that the longing in my heart was to come to know God and know for sure that Jesus was God. I wanted to know it was really true.

Upon returning to our ranch that evening, I was so bothered by that picture that I was unable to sleep. I just wanted to spend some time and think. So, I returned to the same knoll on the mountain where I had sat when I was 16. As I approached the knoll, I noticed there was a log there in a clearing. After I sat on the log, I began praying, 'God, if you're real and Jesus is your son, would you reveal yourself to me?' At that point in my life, I did not question the assurance of God, but I was still wondering about Jesus.

As I was sitting on the log praying, I heard footsteps behind me. I was terrified. I had lived in the mountains most of my life and it wasn't unusual for me to take walks in the night and hear strange noises. But on this particular night, I was terrified. Never mind the lions and tigers and bears. I was asking God to come and reveal Himself to me -- and in my heart and my mind, I felt like God was walking up behind me, so much so that I was afraid to turn around.

With this paralyzing fear keeping me firmly seated on the log, I hardly moved when a deer stepped within an arm's reach over the log I was sitting on. She walked over the log, moved around in front of me and turned, looking me square in the eyes, just the same way the deer had stared at me throughout that multimedia presentation. It was in that moment that Jesus was really revealed to me. It was as if He was saying, 'I'm here and I'm real -- and I'm answering your prayer.' I no longer needed any more assurance that Jesus was God's Son. I knew it deep in my soul.

Keep praying...