“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Becoming a new creation sounds as if it involves a radical change, and indeed it does! Hence, C. S. Lewis could say: “The Christian life is simply a process of having your natural self changed into a Christ self, and…this process goes on very far inside. One's most private wishes, one’s point of view, are the things that have to be changed.”

But it should be a great encouragement to us that no one is ever too old or to set in their ways that the Holy Spirit can’t change their hearts, as this wonderful story a reader shared on my Facebook page demonstrates:

I would like to share my mother’s testimony for her. My parents, in their 90s, had to go into a nursing home because I physically could not take care of them anymore. When my father passed six months later, my mother became depressed and started having hallucinations about him. Many people told me to just go along with her hallucinations and not upset her with the truth that he was dead. It took prayer, long talks, and taking her to the cemetery for her to come to the real truth.

She then began asking about salvation and about my father in Heaven. He had accepted Christ as his Savior. I gave my mom your Heaven book, and it has helped change her life. Before I never really knew if she was saved, but she is now openly telling everyone that Jesus is her Savior. She is telling nurses and residents about salvation and Heaven. She has gone from staying in her room to actively participating in activities and meeting people. I’ve seen the Holy Spirit move in her as she slowly walks the halls with her walker going in residents’ rooms, spending time with them, and covering up someone in bed if their blanket has fallen off.

My mother at 93 is ministering to others and telling them about Heaven. No one is ever too old to be used by God for His purposes. I had given up on my mom ever changing but with the Holy Spirit in her heart now she is truly a new creation. Randy Alcorn, thank you for ministering through your book to my mother and others.

After reading her story, I thought about how I often hear (and totally understand) why people say, “When someone has dementia, don’t feel the need to correct the untrue things they are saying. That will only frustrate them.” Many years ago, when Nanci’s dad kept looking out the window and seeing his wife who had died, and other family members and friends, many of them deceased, and saying various people had come to visit him, Nanci and I just nodded. We learned early on that if we pushed back, it would hurt him and make him think we didn’t trust him. So it was only the really BIG things that mattered when we would offer gentle correction.

However, what strikes me about this reader’s story is that she took her mom to her dad’s grave to help her understand he had died. It was then that “She began asking about salvation and about my father in Heaven.”

Suppose she had taken people’s usual advice and not “bothered” her mother with the truth that her husband had died. Would that have meant her mother wouldn’t have asked about salvation in Heaven that led to a relationship with Jesus? Something to think about.

But for sure, let’s never give up on our family and friends who don’t know Jesus, even those with dementia. Let’s keep pointing them to Him and trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work, even when we can’t always see it. 

Photo: Unsplash