If a person needed a God-fearing grandmother to receive eternal life, I would have been ready for heaven at age five. Whether cooking, cleaning, or counseling others in our community, Nanny sang hymns and spirituals, always pervading our meager city surroundings with the melodies hidden in her heart. Though she lived with my family, I never tired of time spent in her presence. She used our moments alone to teach me her favorite spirituals and Bible verses. As a kindergartner in Baltimore, Maryland, I memorized Mark 11:22 in the King James under Nanny’s tutelage: “And Jesus answering saith unto them, ‘Have faith in God.’†Little did I realize that the tiny seeds she planted would take root and blossom during my young adult years.
If someone could be the perfect student to receive eternal life, I would have surely dropped my name in the heavenly hat. Both my parents instilled the importance of education in me early in life. My grade school career exemplified the relentless pursuit of perfection, capped with a letterman sweater for making the A honor roll throughout all four years of high school. I presided over two organizations my senior year, was a faithful member of several others, and played varsity volleyball, all while enduring a rigorous schedule of advanced placement coursework. I received a full academic scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. Yet all these achievements only veiled the soul of a young woman who hadn’t learned that my merits weren’t an acceptable offering for a holy God.
My grandmother’s faith and my scholastic accomplishments weren’t enough to give me eternal life–I needed a Savior. My first failure occurred as a college freshman. How could a “perfect†student fail? I wondered. Family circumstances caused me to look outside my finite reasoning for answers to a haunting question: Why is this happening to me? There had to be a Master Conductor orchestrating the symphony of my life. My finite understanding wasn’t enough to rely on when the going got tough–I needed to know that there was someone bigger than me in control of my life, or I was headed for big trouble. But my mother was dying of cancer–why the discordant, clashing notes? Recalling my grandmother’s faith in Jesus during trying times, I began to read the Bible for myself in search of answers. The eternal wisdom and sovereignty revealed in God’s Word helped me see to my circumstances from His point of view. During my sophomore year, I placed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for my eternal destiny.
To receive eternal life, a person must recognize his sinfulness before God and trust Jesus Christ alone as his sin-bearer to bring him into right relationship with God. Ephesians 2:8 shows that salvation is a free gift of God and cannot be earned. In Acts 4:12, we read that there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved. God used the perfect storm to strip me of my perfectionism and show me His perfect plan through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ–-and my life will never be the same.