Recently, I was struck afresh with the fact that it is the blood of Jesus that saved me from Gods wrath. This is such an amazing fact.

I remember that before my family and I left Colombia for New York in 1969, my mother reminded me that I was a Roman Catholic and that probably it was going to he hard to remain Catholic in a Protestant country. My mother had no idea what we were up against. By the time we left Colombia, at the age of 13, I was a religious kid who liked hanging out at church. but had not read the Bible. I knew nothing about how God saves His people.

It was great to be in America. We had left destitution to live in a nice house with a yard and drive around in our own car. I had my own bicycle. We actually lived in the second floor of a small house that had only two bedrooms. All five boys slept in the living room and my three sisters slept in the other bedroom. The car was on its last legs and the bike I got from another boy, who had stolen it. It was great, though, to be in America.

Right away I wanted to be an American, and soon after my fifth year in the U.S., I became a citizen. I was in high school, an atheist influenced by my free-spirited humanities teacher. The ‘60’s revolution was alive and well in me. I had toppled God, parents, and all other authority. The captain of my own fate, I was rethinking all the taboos, mores, and morals I was following. I decided what to keep and what to throw away. I decided on my own what was good and what was bad.

I remember my mother crying when I arrogantly told her that God was not only dead, but He actually never was. She cried for me more than once as she saw me decide to be outside of her and my father’s authority, to be totally rude, and to have nothing to do with my family or my Colombian culture. It was quite an astonishing feat for a quiet introvert.

I deserved God’s entire wrath. But during my senior year in high school. I dated a Christian young lady who cared enough for me to take me to church and shared the good news with me. It was good news, because I had ended up only being a confused and depressed person. I remember the day I excitedly told at a family gathering how God had saved me and that I knew for sure I was going to heaven. My family went after me ruthlessly. How dare I think I was better than they! They left me bawling. I learned that it wasn’t that I was worth it, but that God was that gracious.

I have many good stories of how God has taken care of me over the years. Horribly sad, my family has not fared so well in this land. My eight siblings and the rest of my vast family in the U.S. eventually got Americanized. Two of my cousins spent time in jail for laundering drug money, while two of my brothers spent time running from the police for the same reason. Two of my brothers are homosexuals, one sister a lesbian. One sister worships the ‘she goddess,” an other sister is in a Hindu cult. One of my brothers was a communist canvassing the Hollywood crowd for money so that the communists can destabilize the Central American countries. Except for one of my brothers, who also is a Christian, none of the rest knows how life can be clear under the love and authority of God.

The family left in Colombia has it even worse. There, spiritual darkness still covers most of the country. No one is healthy. Everyone has been scarred by the destructiveness of sin.

When discussing the U.S., one of my aunts tells me all kinds of stories about how horrible the country has been to her. She has not met with good people or experiences. That’s odd to me. I tell her how I’ve met so many Christian families who have been kind to me, taken me into their family, and showed me a very different way of living than what I experienced before God saved me.

I tell her of how parents love each other and stay away from adultery. How instead of being abused and abusing, they’re healthy adults, looking after their kids. They teach their kids from God’s Word, disciplining them accordingly. They’re hopeful about the future and relaxed about the present. Their Christian love also extends to those in the Church and community.

This I’ve felt deeply. Years ago, after two years of college, I decided to follow my family to Miami and stop pursuing my architectural degree. I was still caught up in drugs and loved architecture more than God. In Miami, God put me in touch with His church. The Levi family noticed me and invited me over for lunch. They kept inviting me. Danny Levi got thoroughly involved in my life. He took me to work with him, exercised with me, hired me to do house and yard work, and got me invited everywhere he was invited. While he was doing all this for me, he not only taught me God’s Word, but showed me how a Christian behaved in public and at home. His wife, Suzzy, was just as kind to me.

What impressed me the most was how they would discipline their kids. Danny would take them to their room, tell them what they did wrong and why, according to God, and then he would spank them in total self control. Also, I was moved by the way they behaved with each other. They always dealt with each other with utmost respect. This was so different. Their example caused me to deal with the problems in my own family.

One day I invited my father to breakfast—the first time in my life—and asked my father to forgive me for my rebelliousness and my attitude towards him. I had hated my father, and now I understood it was me and that I needed to honor my father. He forgave me then. When he died recently, in my sorrow, I thanked God for showing me my faults with my father and letting me experience the effects of honoring my father. The rest of my siblings were hit hard with the fact that they had not made peace with him.

Danny and Suzzy loved me for real: Love so different than anything I had known. I thought of what the rest of my family here and Colombia were missing outside of God’s love.

I see the U.S. now from a different perspective. God has shown His mercy, grace, and love generation after generation towards whole families who have loved Him and obeyed His Word. I see a lot of healthy persons, loving and doing God’s work. Enviously, this is what I desire above all for my family. God not only took me out of hard times in Colombia, but He also took me out of darkness and slavery to my own sins.

Now, life still not perfect, but I get a great sense of peace knowing that it is God who determines what is good and bad and that He is in control of my life. What a refreshing thirst quencher is God’s Word. The measure of truth He has shown me keeps me with a clear and balanced view of all things. I wouldn’t want to trade this for anything. If nothing else, I am eternally grateful to God for just this.

But he has been even more kind to me. As I grew up in my family circles, I never dreamed I could earn and have as much as I’m earning and having now. I haven’t ever worried about what we are going to eat—unlike my father. We live in a comfortable house and have the means to buy my girls nice things to wear and books. (I read my first book when I was 14.) Reading the Bible and the other great Christian books to my girls is one of my joys. To top all this, at work I have the opportunity to lead 28 people in an IT company and to work to take dominion of business theory and thinking for Christ.

My wife and two girls worship the Most High God, grateful for what the blood of Jesus has done for us so far and looking forward to spending eternity in His presence.