T. G. Downer, a resident of Moorhead, Mississippi, was immersed into Christ in 1979. He was 79 at the time. He had been studying the Bible and struggling in prayer for 16 years.
T. G.’s first words after his baptism made an indelible impression on his daughter, my friend Madelyn Gibson. He said, “I have wasted my life. Whatever time I have left will be devoted to God.” When T. G. died, Madelyn thought of a way to honor her father’s desire. She and her husband, Gene, converted the Downers’ home into a Christian student center for the young people attending Mississippi Delta Community College in Moorhead. Still open today, this center continues to provide Christian students a place for fellowship with each other and to welcome others into God’s family.
This encouraging story reminds me of a familiar invitation hymn: “Bring Christ your broken life, So marred by sin, He will create anew, Make whole again; Your empty, wasted years He will restore, and your iniquities remember no more.” The beautiful promise in this song is certainly biblical.
Consider the comforting words written by two Hebrew prophets. Joel says that the Lord “will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). And the great preacher and poet Isaiah promises that “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water” (Isa. 35:5-7).
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