This is Evelyn’s true testimony

How I Met Jesus

            My 11^th birthday was in the middle of July, 1937.  It was summer, before school reopened, when Jesus appeared and spoke to me “face to face”.  Although I am now 88 years old, I have never forgotten this meeting. I have reexamined it many times throughout my life.  I believe something supernatural occurred when Jesus entered my personal space and touched me both physically and spiritually.

            Strangely, I didn’t recognize who He was at that time.  It wouldn’t be until many years later, when I was 48, that I would understand the Son of God had visited me and claimed me for his own.  Whether I realized it or not, He would watch over me, direct my paths and protect me all the rest of my life on earth.

            It happened this way.  I was propped up on my bed, watching huge white clouds drifting across a very blue sky.  The book I’d been reading had fallen on the bed beside me as I looked delightedly at the golden light and rich, pure colors of sky above the darker forms of trees, lawns, streets and houses that were framed like a picture outside my bedside window.

            Quite suddenly, in less than a millisecond, I found myself standing on the wooden deck of a large sailing vessel in the middle of a great, peaceful ocean.  Amazingly I was NOT frightened, but amazed and curious. What is going on?  Why am I here?  I didn’t move, but stood wondering on the deck about what might happen next.  I felt very alone as I could see no other person on the ship, not even a seabird flying across the blue sky and white clouds.

Then I saw someone in a luminous white robe that covered him from his shoulders down to the sandals on his feet.  He wore a gold belt, and a narrow gold sash was across his chest.  He walked toward me and I felt great expectation, joy, curiosity, and no fear.  When he reached me he stood quietly, arms extended toward me, and a smile on his face.  Such a smile it was!  It reflected the love of my mother, the grin of my best friend, the approval of a favorite teacher, and much more than I can describe.  Without hesitation I threw myself into his arms.  He hugged me and it was as though I became part of him and he was part of me.  I knew that I would never want to leave, not ever. 

            Then He spoke to me.  But I don’t think it was with audible words like you and I speak to each other.  With firm hands He gently moved me out from his all-encompassing hug, looked down at me with such love in His eyes, and said these words that I have never forgotten: “You have a long voyage to take.  You don’t know who I am now, but you will know later on.  You will not be alone for I will never leave you or forsake you.  When you are much older you will know me in a Big Way and I will be with you forever.”

            Again He hugged me and I clung to Him.  Yet somehow I knew I must let go.  “Please, please don’t leave me.  I want to stay with you. Let me stay with you.  Please?”  I was crying as I realized He was really going away and I couldn’t go with him.  My tears kept coming even as I watched him move to the rail at the side of the deck.  Facing me, now many feet away, He was looking intently at me.  Even at this distance I was aware of his tremendous love for me.  I stood still knowing I couldn’t run to him even though I wanted to do so.  Then the white clouds like the ones I’d admired outside my bedroom window moved down to the ship and surrounded Him.  The man in the white robe was carried up from the ship’s deck by those clouds as he quickly disappeared from my sight.  I stood crying even thought I remembered He had told me I would see Him again.  A deep grief and longing was lodged in my eleven year old heart.

            In a moment of time I was back, sitting on my bed, my story book by my side, tears running down my cheeks.  Feeling a great loss, I ran to find Mama.  She was across the hall in her bedroom, taking a nap.  When I sat on her bed, she woke up, alarmed when she saw I was crying. “What is it, Evelyn?  What’s happened?”

            I told her about how I had been on the ship.  How I was hugged by a man in a beautiful white robe.  I told her, as best as I could, about Him and how much he loved me.  I told her how I wanted to stay with Him forever and how awful it was when I knew he had to leave.  But he promised me “he’d come back when I was a whole lot older and be with me forever!”  Even so, I told Mama “I wish I could be with him right now.  I wish he could come live with us NOW!”

            My mother hugged me, kissed me, handed me a handkerchief, and said, “Evelyn, you just had a beautiful dream.  A wonderful dream, but that’s all it was, a dream.  Don’t keep crying for someone who isn’t real.  He’s like the character in a book you’ve read.  Maybe you’ll write about him someday.  You love to write.  Now dry your eyes and help me plan what we’ll have for dinner tonight.”

            So I did what my mother said but I didn’t forget about the dream and the man in the white robe who talked to me and loved me beyond anything I ever imagined. 

            Three years later mother and I were back in Philadelphia at the big three story brick home on Broad Street where my Grandmother and Grandfather, Pop Pop had spent most of their married life.  My beloved Pop Pop was dying.  He was sitting in his big Morris Chair in the little sitting room off his and grannie’s bedroom.  He was quietly talking, asking me a few questions about school, about my friends and my beloved dog, Shep.  Suddenly he looked straight into my eyes and asked, “Ev, Pop Pop’s little sweetheart, do you know Jesus?”

            “What do you mean, Pop Pop, “Do I know Jesus?”  I guess I know that he was one of the smartest men who ever lived.  Some say he was a very good man.  He did some miracles like magicians do.  Sometimes I go to Sunday School with my girlfriends.  The teacher talks about Jesus and how it was to live in those days.”  I watched two big tears roll down my grandpa’s cheeks.  I felt terrible, but didn’t know what to say.  I knew I had hurt him deeply because somehow I hadn’t given the right answer to his question.  He turned away from me as I sat miserable on the foot stool beside him, not knowing what else to do.  He looked out the window and was very quiet.  What can I do to make him happy again?  We all knew he was dying and this might be the last time we were together.

            Pop Pop turned back to me.  I saw that the sunlight outside was gathered all around his head in a luminous circle.  He smiled.  He patted my hand several times and said these words:  “Evelyn, you don’t know Jesus now.  But you will.  You have a long voyage to take, but when you are much older, Jesus will come back to you.  You will know Him then and he will be with you always!”

            When I was 48 years old, I knelt beside my bed, my Bible opened, my tears staining its pages.  Lord God I cried, “I want to believe in your Jesus.  Please, please, come into my life and take it over.  I’ve taught Sunday school to all ages, have had teenagers saved at Release Time teaching classes, spoken at Christian Women’s lunches, yet I don’t really know your Jesus. Please, Jesus come into my heart and live in me.  You promised long ago you’d never leave me or forsake me.  At last I know you are not just a dream and I need you desperately to be with me always.  My life is falling apart without you.

            He came.  He told me he had always been near, I just didn’t see him.  Sometimes now when I don’t recognize Him but I still know He’s here, - loving me, guiding me, whispering to me in my heart, shouting at me through His word, holding me in his arms whenever I need to be loved and lifted up – always here.  So no matter what is happening I remember the “dream” and feel His presence surround me.  He is SO REAL and if my prayers are answered he will be real to you too.