I am Armenian. In 301 CE, Armenia became the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its official state religion. According to tradition, both Thaddeus and Bartholomew, two of Jesus’ twelve disciples, brought the gospel to Armenia and were martyred there. From before I can remember, I heard that I was a Christian and should behave accordingly.
But what did that mean? No one ever explained it to me. Years passed. War came to my country. People died, young people. And then whether you want to or not, you ask yourself questions: “Where are you God? Why don’t you save? Why don’t you stop the war and bloodshed?”
Then you lose your relatives and ask yourself the same questions again.
When we were still little, my sister, brother, and I spent the summer holidays with our aunt and uncle. My aunt is a Seventh-day Adventist. I went to church with her, participated in a children’s program, and it all felt very good.
But when I lost my father, everything lost its meaning. It seemed to me that I was broken, like a porcelain vase after a fall, into 1,000 pieces. First, because I had lost my father. Second, I had lost him on July 4th, and my birthday is July 5th. But that’s not all. Three months later I lost my uncle.
I asked God the above-mentioned questions. “Why? What for? What for?” My relatives also asked such questions. They even dug a little deeper and asked the question, “Why did this happen to you? You went to church, right? You see, you believed in God?”
Sometimes people think, and I did too, that if you know God, everything in your life should go smoothly. But this is not so, far from it. God did not promise in His word that we would not have any problems. But He promised that no matter what difficult problem you have, He will always be there and will always help, you just need to trust Him.
Years passed and I could not find the answers to these questions. But one day, when I accepted God as my personal Savior, I found answers to all my questions. I realized that death is not the final stop on our life’s journey.
And then the Lord seemed to remind me of everything else that had happened. I remembered that my cousin had helped my father accept God before his death. And now I know that when God comes the second time to gather us home, my father and my uncle will be resurrected.
No matter what happens, no matter how hard my life’s path has been, I have two important aspirations that give me inspiration to continue living and fighting difficulties.
The first is to keep trusting the Lord so that when Jesus comes the second time to gather his people, I will be there to see my father and uncle.
The second and most important one is to see the Almighty God myself, who will grant life to my father and so many others.
Now my life is full of meaning. The Lord helped me find peace of mind, healed my broken heart, and gave me great hope.
Angela Hakobyan-Shevko has been at the La Sierra University Church since she and her family escaped the war in Ukraine.