Encouragement

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Asima Abdulrahmin
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV)

Can hope save life?

Asima Abdulrahmin, a 17 year old teenage girl, converted from Islam to Christianity, was struck by a hit and run driver. No one, not even people in the medical profession or members of her family, expected this young person to live much beyond a couple of days. Although severely injured, Asima interacted with the medical staff and everyone who visited with her.

Asima lay wrapped in a body cast from hip to heel. But her voice was strong and firm with regards to her expression of hope, forgiveness of the drunk driver who hit and nearly killed her, and excitement in her new found religious faith. To all who visited her, she elicited: “Thank you for being with me. God be with you!” in her Arabic English. Her little hospital room was cluttered with some mementos of her short life—a picture of her nuclear family, a drinking cup, a golden cross, a Bible in a leather book cover, a single rose in a vase, a small writing pad, and three books of poetry in a leather case.

Asima was asked about these three books of poetry. Her response was a great testimony coming from a person so young as she. “I really love poetry,” she said, “but I haven’t read these book that my dad and mom gave me.” As she painfully pushed herself up and she look at them, her face seemed to light up. “I’m saving these books of poetry for my old age. I don’t care what these doctors tell me. I’m going to make it and live a long time. I’m going to travel all over the world. Someday I’m going to go to the place where Jesus lived, died and rose again regardless of the situation in the Middle East. In no time, I will rise from this bed. I will learn to walk again. I will run. I will go to college. I will marry a Godly man whom God will give me because I will pray, be patient and wait for him. I will make my house a home for God, my husband and the beautiful children I will have in His Name. I will read these three books of poetry when I am old. But before I read these books of poetry, I will read the book of God, the Bible, to get His wisdom and knowledge before I get the wisdom and knowledge man. For God’s wisdom and knowledge is far, far greater than any of these writers!”

Asima’s hopeful expressions have yet to be fulfilled—at least most of them as of 2004. however, she has risen from her bed. She is now able to walk and run. She will be a college junior in the fall of 2004. She is well on her way of achieving those things hoped for through her faith in God.

What is hope? Hope is wishing for some thing or dream to come true, faith is believing that it will come true through the grace of God. Hope is wanting some thing so strongly that –in spite of all the evidence and the odds that you are not going to achieve your desires—but you go right on desiring it anyway. And the remarkable thing about it is that this very act of hoping produces a kind of strength that only God can give a person through faith.

Asima has it. Every person can have it with God standing by their side in faith fed in hope and trust that God will do the best for them even though tragedy may beset that person as it does with every person. Asima understood that tragedy is nothing more than a test of faith. Asima stated a belief that the best for her is yet to come! Same can be said for you too!!!!

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