The Savannah Story

//Keith Nachbor

As a father, at one point the words I wanted to hear from my daughter, Savannah, more than anything else were, “Dad, will you snuggle with me?” And my wife, Jodi, and I would always snuggle with her in our bed.

Savannah would fall asleep and then I would take her upstairs and put her in her bed. Over time, she got into the habit of falling asleep in our bed. When she was 2 or 3 years old, my wife and I were trying to break her of that habit, because I was tired of carrying her upstairs every night.

Savannah’s desperate desire to be in her parents’ presence came in part because she knew them, and she knew that they loved her and would protect her. Well, God wants you to have a relationship like that with Him. He loves you and wants you to become His child and get to know Him as your Heavenly Father. And He wants to protect you as any loving parent would. If you have never been born again—if you have never accepted God’s Son, Jesus, as your Lord and Savior—and you want to become God’s child, pray the following prayer: “God, I’m sorry for my sins—for everything wrong I’ve ever done. Please forgive me. I believe that Jesus died on the Cross to pay for my sins, and He rose again. I accept Him as my Savior and my Lord. According to Galatians 3:26, I am now Your child. Thank You that I can come into your presence at any time! “In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.”

If you prayed the salvation prayer below for the first time, e-mail us here and let us know about it. We’d love to hear from you and send you some free materials to get you started in your new life as God’s child

For a while, I’d take her upstairs before we went to bed, and during the night she would come back downstairs and crawl into our bed. One night my wife and I decided we were going to put our foot down on this and say no. When we went to bed that night, we closed the door and locked it.

Savannah came down, tried to open the door, started crying, and said, “I want in.” It was so hard for us to say no, but we said no anyway. Finally it got really quiet, so we thought she went back upstairs and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I could see her little fingers in the gap underneath our bedroom door. She was lying on a blanket on a tile floor, sleeping with her hand pushed under our bedroom door as far as it would go. She wanted to be with us so badly that she thought, If all I can get in there are my fingers, then that’s going to have to be enough for me.

Savannah eventually did stop coming downstairs to sleep with us. She is 12 now, but as a little girl, she so desperately wanted to be in our presence that she was willing to do anything to be with us. There are times we need to push like that to get into the presence of God. When it seems as if the door is locked, we need to put our fingers underneath the door. We have to be that hungry for God’s presence in our lives.

I believe there are a lot of us who give up, but Savannah never quit. She wanted to be with us so much that her fingers were enough. She wasn’t going to let a door, cold tile, or being uncomfortable keep her out of our presence. In the same way, we shouldn’t let anything keep us out of the presence of God. That hunger and desire to be with Him has to be so great that we’re willing to be uncomfortable just to be there.

[Editor’s Note: Keith Nachbor (pronounced “neighbor”) is Junior High Youth Minister at RHEMA Bible Church . You may contact him at facebook.com/keithn.]