Key of the Kingdom
Monday, 25 June 2018https://www.sim.org.au/Connect/Blog/June-2018/Key-of-the-Kingdom
A West African woman stood up at an annual church meeting in March.
The woman testified that she had stood in the same meeting last year to
ask for prayer for her husband's salvation. He often beat her for
following Christ. However, this time she stood to give an update...
A few months earlier, the woman testified, she had told him she
wanted to attend a week-long church meeting. Her husband was livid. A
whole week? Who would cook his food? Clean his house? She should focus
on the majority religion of the region and forget church. He beat her
severely -- again. Nearly all Christian women converts in this region
are illiterate. Many make these meetings a priority to ask Bible
questions because they cannot read or obtain a Bible on their own.
This Christian woman was determined to go to the church meeting
regardless of her husband's violence. Still enraged, he locked up the
house as soon as she left, declaring to the neighbors that his wife
would never enter his home again. To make his point, he threw the key
into the river as he headed to his girlfriend's house for the week.
The woman enjoyed the Christian conference and returned home on Friday,
stopping by the local market. She planned to have a hearty meal ready
for her husband when he came home from Friday prayers. She had no idea
that her husband had already locked her out of her home for good.
Arriving home, she was puzzled that the house was locked up tight. She
needed to start preparing the meal, so she borrowed a pot from her
neighbor and began to clean the fish.
When she cut open the fish, a key fell out of its belly. Puzzled, she
examined it and remarked to her neighbor that the key looked similar to
her own house key. Her neighbor urged her to try it in the lock, and it
worked! She opened up the house, cleaned it, and got her husband's
supper ready to wait for him.
As the husband walked home from Friday prayers at the mosque, he saw his
house open and a fire going in the outdoor kitchen. Again he was
enraged, thinking the neighbors had helped his wife break the door or
the locks, but on examination, nothing had been harmed. When he demanded
to know how she got back into their house, she told him the strange
story of the key in the fish's belly. Stunned, he didn't say another
word.
Until Saturday night. He asked his wife if he could attend church the
next morning. After Sunday morning church service, the man asked to
speak to the pastor privately. He recounted the incredulous story about
his house key and said, "I want to serve the God of the Christians. He
is the One who knows and has power to do what no one else can."
That Christian woman beamed as she talked. God had answered many prayers
for her husband to repent and follow Christ. In his gospel, Matthew
tells of a fish caught with a coin in its mouth for taxes (Matthew
17:27). In West Africa in 2018, a house key in a fish's belly became a
key to the Kingdom for an abusive husband.
Our Lord is still a Fisher of men.
