by Captain Lorna Cossey
Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. by Judy Blume. My mother gave this book to my sister and me at age 11. It’s about a young girl learning the facts of life in middle school. This story not only gave funny details about life at 11, but it led me to the Wonderful Counselor.
The book was more than just a young girl coming of age. It was also about a young girl
searching for God. The storyline introduced me to talking to God on a personal level. Though we were a Christian family and attended church regularly, God felt so far away.
I started talking to God by writing in a secret notebook. I would begin my entries like the
title, “Are you there, God?”
One day I wrote an entry to God motivated by a stern conversation I’d had with my mom about having a good Christmas break based on my behavior in school. I wrote, “Are you there, God? It’s me. How can I behave in class when the urge to clown around pulls me in?”
As I began to write and invite God into my world, He opened my heart to true salvation. After I accepted Jesus as my Savior, slowly my behavior began to change. God created in me a hunger for reading His Word. I would read the King James version in a quiet place in our basement, and the Wonderful Counselor would give me insight into His Word. Wow! Imagine that! The King James version.
I can practically hear your thoughts…Captain Lorna, a Judy Blume fictional story led you to the Wonderful Counselor?
It might seem impossible. But let us look briefly at what Wonderful Counselor means. Biblically, His title as Counselor means the Revealer, Light, Helper, Truth, Guide, and in John
16:13, He is the Spirit of Truth.
Also, the ascribed adjective “wonderful” relates to His majestic role. Wonderful is in relationship to miracles that only God can do.
In the Jewish Bible it reads, “Wonder of a Counselor,” implying His way of counsel is beyond understanding. So, yes. He can perform this miracle of stepping into an ordinary 11- year-old girl’s life to make Himself known to her even through the unorthodox way of a fictional story.
He is, indeed, the Wonderful Counselor.
