There was a small molded resin/plaster plaque that hung on the wall in my mother’s house since I was around 8 years old. My mother’s house was not dusty like mine always is, so after all these years it still looks like the day she hung it. The first place she hung it was near my bed. I particularly noticed it when I made my bed. It seemed comforting, for it said,
“By Grace are ye saved through Faith” Eph.2:8.
The shape of it was of a scroll, with all four corners trying to roll in. It was painted to look old and as if the scroll were cracking across the papyrus emulated paper. It was about ¾” thick, very dimensional. The letters were old script calligraphy, molded to stand out dramatically from the scroll. Wrapped around the outside letters, but inside the boundaries of the scroll itself, were roses and realistic looking leaves. It was very much befitting my mother’s Victorian tastes, but was in the molded art form of the 40’s decorating style. It’s size was only 6 ½ inches by 5 ½ inches.
The plaque had been a gift to Mama from a neighbor. They were Jews who had accepted Jesus as their Messiah, and Mr. Fleisher, then, had become a pastor and missionary to his fellow Jews. In his home were stored several boxes of printed materials, which when he left to follow the Lord’s calling, were stored in his attic. They however, gave certain things away, and the plaque was the thing they lovingly left for my Mother. I am not sure it meant much to her other than it was a memory of them for her. I barely remember them coming and sitting on the couch in our living room, and seeming sad to be leaving. As a child, I didn’t quite understand the parting of friends kind of sad, between them and my mother. The tears seemed awkward to me, and I had never heard of “Jews” before. Notice the dates. Late 50’s was not too far from late 40’s, when the world was in turmoil over what an awful man, calling himself Christian, had done to an incredible number of Jews. I couldn’t at my age have any concept of what my mother may have felt for her friends. They didn’t know that God had selected that plaque specifically to be used in my family for His greater purpose, but I will forever be thankful to them for it.
When my mother, became disoriented, due to the onset of Alzheimer’s, she began to want to talk about who should take what from her house when she died. I really didn’t want to start taking her things away, and probably hurt her feelings a bit when I didn’t really want much of her stuff. (As I have discovered is true of my family about my things as well.) But the one thing I knew I wanted was the plaque. I asked her might I have it, if no one else really wanted it. She approved and said I should take it on before the thieves took it away. The thieves were in Mama’s imagination, for the most part.
There is some basis I found out later in the ramblings of an Alzheimer’s patient’s fears about people stealing things. But, taking Mama out of her home, as it progressed actually helped her to not fear those things were being stolen - because she had forgotten them. Yet I wouldn’t take the plaque then, because I was sure it would be just one more thing that she would forget she gave someone, and later think it had been stolen. I wanted her to have normalcy for as long as possible.
When we finally had to clean out her house, I made it clear to everyone, that I was taking that plaque. It was the only thing I really wanted very much that had belonged to her. None of the others remembered Mr. and Mrs. Fleisher. To them, it was just a plaque. But to me, it was soooo much more – mother’s friends’ gift led me to my gift.
After looking at it for some time, on my bedroom wall, when I was almost 9, I became curious about what that verse meant. I looked up Grace in the dictionary. Then Faith. I looked up the verse in my Bible. I read the whole text. Verses 9 said, “it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” What was “it” I wondered. I pondered the verse and learned it. I understood that Grace is undeserved, a kind act by God. I understood that faith is believing something, without undeniable facts. I could think of a number of things I had faith in, and one was definitely God. But, as I often say, that word, “saved,” threw me. It took me almost a year to sort through the full implications of “saved by grace through faith.” The plaque started me on a journey toward receiving the Gift, which the full verse offered. I wore out the zipper on my white Bible, which my Grandmother gave me when I was 5, trying to understand. Over and over I read the same verse….“It is the Gift of God.”
After searching, seeking, and finally understanding about Grace and Faith and Being Saved, I finally understood how I should ask to receive my Gift. Now that was odd, I thought. Asking for your gift? But, somewhere along the path I was made aware that it was like knowing what you wanted for your birthday, and asking a parent for it. It is still a birthday GIFT. Or on Christmas morning, when the very thing you so hoped to get was there underneath the tree. Scripture says a good father would not give a stone to a child asking for bread or a snake when the child asks for fish (Luke 11:11). Parents give good gifts to their children, because they love them. I was so glad to find out we should view God as our Heavenly Father who wishes to give us good gifts. As with the Birthday and Christmas gifts, God only gave it when I really knew that it was the one thing I most wanted, when I asked for it in expectation and with a hope of receiving it. What a relief to discover God had not brought me to the cross to punish and condemn me. Rather He wished to give me a gift of freedom from the fear of all that. For the first time in my life I understood God was about forgiveness of sins.
Ever get a list from kids at Christmas, that by the time Christmas neared it had changed 3 or 4 times? Knowing what we want is a process for humans. And God is aware of that. At the age of nearly 10, I was already losing my childlike faith. In stead, I agonized over understanding what I was asking for when I asked to be “Saved.” As most adults will. God patiently waited, until I knew enough for him to give me His Gift. The reason God called it a gift was because he wanted us to receive salvation like any gift. Just allow Him to give it to us. A Gift!!!! Salvation is a Gift!! His Spirit said – “just take it.” At first I thought it couldn’t be that simple. By the time I was ready to ask, the interesting thing that happened as I prayed, was He chose to give it to me in an almost visual way.
Children at play have an ability to imagine in detail what is in their imaginary story. But this was not so much my making up a story, as it was allowing God to let me see what He was doing in my life - His giving me a memory. I was lying on my bed pleading to be saved, for I could think of nothing else those days. I prayed for forgiveness for now and forever. I imagined a box, beautifully wrapped in golden paper, with a gold ribbon pulled up around it and tied into a bow on top as I thought about the “gift.” It glowed - sort of - and was moving toward me. The still small voice called my name, and said take it. So I actually reached out feeling sheepish, but found myself in a moment of knowing God himself was in my room, in a way I had never known Him before. As if a window to His world had opened to me, and my gift was coming straight from Heaven. I drew it near to me and as I hugged it, it vanished into my body. Even at 9 years old, I fully understood my gift was far more than a toy, not a game we were playing. What was happening was not lost on me. God was giving me his Spirit, in a way that I would never forget, - in a way that it actually was a very special gift, unique to my salvation story. And the immediate change that accepting it made in me was beyond amazing. The Gift was His Spirit coming to live inside me! The tremendous burden of fear and all that sin entails was destroyed. Oh to walk every minute as if it were that instant when God gave me the gift of His salvation! Such a weight was lifted from a little girl’s life.
Lord, help me to walk, not by sight, but by Grace through Faith in You, by the Power of your being IN ME. And thank you so much for Mr. and Mrs. Fleisher and the gift of that little plaque. And thank you for your Gift so sweetly given to anyone, in whatever way that it may be given, which was or will be most meaningful, and memorable to any who will receive it. Help people to share how they received your gift, so that any who don’t have your gift will want it to pursue it. AMEN
(Many will not have an impactful memory of their salvation. It is far better to have knowledge of salvation, and not have memories of fears of death and sin in getting there. I believe that is why Christ said allow the little children to come. They are so full of faith, they just accept without question. It is also why we must be good stewards of what we teach them. However, sometimes when older they can only remember that they prayed to be saved and the memory fades. So it is OK to revisit being born again to understand it’s full implications.)
-For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the Gift of God. -Not of works, lest any man should boast. -For through him (Jesus) we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.. - Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. Ephesians 2: 8, 9, 18, 19 KJV (King James Version)
