As I sat at Derek’s dinner table digesting God’s big surprise (yesterday’s post), he asked me what I thought of Nelson becoming a pastor.

“It’s glorious!” I said, confident that the Lord had been schooling him to this end for a long time. “But how can he be a pastor without being ordained? And how can he be ordained without having gone to seminary?”

Derek’s answer surprised me (God’s Part Two). “You don’t need to go to seminary to become a pastor here. It’s about being the man the church ‘puts forward,’ combined with an interview and ordination process that happens in front of a panel of Baptist pastors working in Hawaii.”

Two weeks later I was sitting in the back of the church as its members discussed the possibility of Nelson becoming their new pastor. Five different people stood and told of their long-ago hope that if Derek ever left, Nelson would step in. When they voted whether or not to extend the call, it was unanimous – and that day they “put forward” the man they wanted as their new pastor.

Two weeks after that, Nelson was sitting in front of six Baptist pastors, answering questions about God’s Word and his own faith. I was privileged to listen in on the process and their discussion afterwards. Once again the vote was unanimous, and they agreed to ordain Nelson the following day.

And what a day it was!

After these same men had preached in their own churches that morning, they and their wives joined us to participate in Nelson’s afternoon ordination service. The charge was given, followed by the pastors encircling our son to pray phenomenal blessings over him as he received Part Two of God’s amazing surprise….

….and I couldn’t help but weep.

As I listened, God gave me a flashback to the days of difficulty Nate and I had had with a youthful Nelson as he made one unwise choice after another. I remembered a teen who ran away from home on a sub-zero night and was missing for four days. I thought of court room episodes, car accidents, alcohol, and a tearful conversation with Nate during which I questioned what would ever become of our wayward son.

As Nelson kneeled in the little sanctuary in the process of being ordained, God gave me the answer. Directly into my heart and mind he said, “During those troubled years when you were looking at Nelson, all you saw  was a rebellious kid.

But Me? I saw…. a pastor.”

“I have chosen the way of faithfulness.” (Psalm 119:30)