Tyler

I went to Iowa for the first week of July, and I’ll need to write about that some because it was incredible in many ways. For now, I have been mulling over something I read on vacation – my 14-year-old nephew’s thoughts about God & his salvation. He wrote it out by hand and posted it on his bedroom door and I couldn’t help but stop and read it. And then read it again. And then again.

“May this be written evidence that I, Tyler Dean Worsham, am a Christian and will forever be a child of the King, Jesus Christ, who is God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, that I have ‘…confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart’ that Jesus is the Son of the most high God and, because He loved us, while we were still sinners and wanted nothing to do with Him, God sent His only begotten Son (His only Son), to come to earth as a lowly carpenter’s son, to live a sinless, perfect life, and suffer many tortures and cruelties and to die the worst death possible, a death on a wooden cross, all because He loved us enough to be mocked, tortured, and murdered by us so we could be saved from death, sin, and hell, and have a relationship with Him. And after three days of being dead as dead can be, God raised Jesus from the dead and is alive as I am now to this very day and was taken up to sit in glory with His Father in heaven. God will and did save me because of I John 1:9. As even more proof, I know I am saved because of I John 2:3 because I try to obey God’s word and hate it when I know I let God down (I try to obey it because nobody can fully obey because we’re all sinners, even if we’re Christians). I also know, despite my failures in proving so, because I love the things of God deep down (the Bible says whoever is of God loves the things of God). I also know I’m saved because I love my fellow Christians (I am a good friend and encourage others).”

After I read this for the first time I felt the wide age gap between my nephew and I narrow a bit. You know how sometimes when you’re watching a child grow so slowly over the years and then all of the sudden you’re like, whoa. This kid’s not a kid anymore. You could say that happened. Of course Tyler is still young and not yet ‘all grown up’, but I was reminded about how smart he is, how sensitive he is, and how courageous he is. He deals with challenges every day that I could not. He is wrestling with things about God at 14 that I wrestle with sometimes now. Maybe we’re not all that different. I appreciate that he took the time to write down his thoughts on notebook paper and pin them to his door. I am thankful that he wrote what God says and has posted it to remind himself (and me) that God IS who He says He is and He has DONE what He said He did. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Tyler's mug

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Speaking of raw talent, did i mention that he is a KILLER artist? No, I’m not talking about, like, mediocre and I don’t mean “good for a 14-year-old”. I mean good, like, for REAL. Oh, and also? A tiny detail that I forgot to mention is that he’s partially blind and STILL WINNING CONTESTS, people. I’ll be bringing him with me to any upcoming Pictionary tournaments, so BRING IT ON.

Tyler drawing Marvel characters

~ by andtheivy on Tuesday, July 22, 2008.