There’s power in a girl’s prayer from Africa

This week our family received a letter from Astro Mesfin, a young girl we sponsor for Compassion International who lives in Ethiopia. We have supported Astro and her schooling and Christian education for more than 10 years with small monthly payments. In her recent letter, Astro thanked us because our small gift had helped supply shoes, toiletries and school supplies.

She ended her letter by saying, “I pray for you with my family. Don’t stop praying for me. God keeps us alive and His grace is high.”

Ethiopians face many challenges. According to the Internet, the average yearly income for each Ethiopian is $1,000 a year. Our small donations go a long way for people living in poverty. However, there is another danger for Christians living in Ethiopia. Conflict exists between Muslim and Christian Ethiopians. In Africa, many Christians have died because of this conflict.

Astros’s choice of words, “God keeps us alive and His grace is high” are a little different than the phrasing Americans would use, but they contain real truth and meaning. Yes, God does keep us alive, even in the face of poverty and violence. And yes, God’s grace is high.

In Ephesians 3 we are told of Paul’s prayer for the Christians at the church in Ephesus. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

You see, not only does God keep us alive through earthly dangers; but through Jesus he gives eternal life to all who believe in Jesus as their Savior from sin. That makes the poverty and danger some face in this life more bearable, knowing that God has eternity waiting. God’s eternal love makes all the struggles of this life ultimately inconsequential, because in heaven God takes them all away. As American Christians who have not faced the poverty and dangers others in the world face, do we take God’s love for granted because we are so blessed with affluence compared to the rest of the world?

Yes, our family does pray for Astro. After reading Astro’s letter in our devotions after supper, our family prayed for Astro and her family. We thanked God that he keeps her family alive and that his grace is high. What brought tears to my wife’s eyes was that Astro and her family, in the midst of their poverty and danger, are praying for us. With all the danger and poverty she faces, she is praying for us. It sort of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

I pray, with Paul, for each of you and myself. I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And, I pray that knowing this high love of Christ we may not take God’s love for granted, but may live lives that show his love in all we say and do.

Jonathan Rockey is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer. Contact him at jonrock53@mtaonline.net.

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