Beauty from Ashes

       The realization that this was the last night his mother and father would live under the same roof was breaking his heart. His parents, David and Karen Gibbs, had agreed to meet at the courthouse the next day to sign divorce papers.

       David had been raised in a home overshadowed by alcohol. At 16, he quit school. He and Karen married young. Uncontrollable rage drove David to drugs and alcohol, adding fuel to an already raging fire, reducing his smoldering marriage to near ashes."

       Brian was crying when he went into his father's room and pleaded with him not to leave. As Brian was leaving the room, he looked back at his father and said, "Dad, God wants me to say something to you."

        "What?" David asked.

       Brian said, "Jesus is what you're looking for. If you don't give your life to Jesus Christ, you are going to die and go to hell soon."

       Brian had never been to church and knew nothing about Jesus. But God used this heartbroken boy to utter words to his father directly from the heart of God.

       David changed jobs often. He'd been at his construction job only a few weeks when his foreman, a man David called "Preacher Man," began witnessing to him.

       The next day during morning break, the foreman approached David and said, "I've got a message for you."

       David asked, "Who's the message from?"

        "The message is from God," his foreman said.

       David replied, "What's God got to say to me, Preacher Man?"

       The foreman said, "Dave, did you listen to what your boy said to you last night in your bedroom? I've been on my knees for three weeks praying for you since you came on this job. Last night I was praying for you, and God showed me a vision. I saw your son walk into your room and he was crying, saying, 'Dad, why do I have to go? I don't want to live with Grandma and Grandpa.' And, Dave, what your boy said to you in your bedroom last night is the truth."

       Amazingly, the foreman repeated word for word what Brian had spoken to his dad: "If you don't give your life to Jesus Christ, you are going to die and go to hell soon."

       The rest of the day Dave sat on his crane pondering what Preacher Man had spoken. He thought, How could he have known our situation? It certainly wasn't my wife who told him. She wants to break up the family as much as I do. Knowing that God cared that much about his family began to melt Dave's heart. He didn't keep the 12 o'clock appointment at the courthouse.

       When he got home Karen asked, "Where were you Buddy? I was at the courthouse waiting at noon, and you weren't there."

        "I'm not signing any divorce papers," David said as he turned and went into the bedroom. For three weeks, this rugged, muscular man went straight home from work instead of stopping off at the bar.

       David's attitude changed. After three weeks, he asked his foreman, "What must I do to be saved?"

       The surprising answer. "I'm not going to tell you."

       Dave said, "What do you mean?"

       His foreman said. "You'll know."

       Later that night, November 27, 1979, at about 3 in the morning. David crawled out of bed, got on his knees and asked Jesus Christ to come into his life.

       Karen saw the change in David and wanted to know what happened to him. He said, "I got saved."

        "Saved from what?" she asked. Then she told him that she wanted to be saved too. So David led her to Jesus.

       The Lord brought beauty out of ashes for David and Karen Gibbs and their family.