My Twin Sister

Every once in a while I find something in one of my sketch books or notebooks that I think is worth sharing on this blog; the following was a note I posted on Facebook several years ago. My sister Ruth has been visiting us this weekend and we were remembering this post so I thought I would share it again. As an introduction it might be helpful to know that growing up I read a lot of books about boy-girl twins and they always had such grand times. Here is the post from May 2nd 2009: 

When I was growing up I dreamed of having a twin sister. I read stories of boys who had twin sisters and they always had such good times. I had good times with my sisters and my older sister and I had a fairly close relationship. We planned things together. We worked and played together. But still I thought, “If I had a twin sister, we would be really close. It would be so much fun.”

I never did get a twin sister- it is rather difficult to get a twin years after you’re born. But this morning something occurred to me. It occurred to me because of something else that I was trying to figure out. Let me just tell you the whole story.

Back in 1994 I made a conscious decision to let Christ live in me and for me to live in Christ. In 1995 I sensed the Spirit of God calling me into His service. I thought the date of my salvation was Saturday, January 22nd 1994, however I didn’t know the date when God called me. I remembered it was in June, and it was a special service at church. I remember seeing the tour buses parked beside the church. The Nelson Coblentz family with Gospel Express Ministries came and sang (this was my first introduction to Southern Gospel music- I was hooked) and Nelson preached about family relationships. Afterwards I went forward to pray, and Nelson came and laid his hands on me and several of my friends and asked God to send the fire down upon us. I can also remember that was the night when my Dad hugged me and told me he loved me for the first time in living memory.

I could remember all of this but I could not remember the date.

I wanted to know the date so I did the only logical thing, I called my sister Ruth. Ruth kept a journal very faithfully, I imagine she still does. She is like a Graber family historian. I called her several days ago and asked her when that happened. She said she would look it up. This morning she called me. Gospel Express came to Kootenai Christian Fellowship in Eureka Montana on Thursday June 15th 1995. That is the day I first sensed God calling me into the ministry. Ruth and I reminisced awhile about that summer. Then Ruth said, “Now I know the date when I was saved, January 20th, 1994.”

I said, “Wait a minute, we were saved on the 22nd.” But Ruth had the journal, and she is older, so she won. For years now I have been telling people I was saved on Saturday, January 22nd, 1994. But in one fell swoop that all changed. My sister, according to her journal, says that we were saved on Thursday, January 20th, 1994. And that is when it hit me. We were saved. Both of us. The same day. The same hour. With the same parents. We’re spiritual twins. I have a twin sister!

We were saved in our living room. Dad and Mom explained the Biblical plan of salvation to us and the four of us knelt by our living room couch and Ruth and I prayed to receive Christ that day. That makes us twins!

Boy, I sure hope that when people look at us I have a spiritual resemblance to my twin sister.