When Christians see the power of Jesus Christ
manifested before their eyes in reality and power, they love to testify
and share this knowledge with others, that they, also, might find faith
in the Lord Jesus.
Brother Branham said, “There's something about the Gospel, when we hear the
good news, we like to tell others, don't we. Everybody gets saved wants to tell
everybody else. Everybody gets healed wants to tell somebody else.”
Believest Thou This? 50-0716
And thus it was that day in August, 1947, when a young man set out to share
his personal belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and His power to heal with people
he knew in his locality.
Having seen so many miracles take place in another one of Brother Branham’s
meetings only days earlier, he began inviting people to attend the forthcoming
meetings Brother Branham was about to hold in his home city of Calgary, Alberta.
He came to the home of one French Canadian man who he knew was not a
Christian. He rang the doorbell, and when the owner answered, he invited him to
the oncoming meetings in Calgary.
“I don’t believe in your God!” the man exclaimed with a bitter, hardened edge
to his words.
Shocked at this abrupt reply, the Christian man asked why he would make such
a statement.
“Come in and sit down. I want to show you something,” said the French
Canadian man, leading the young man into his living room. He then excused
himself, to return a few moments later leading a little girl into the room.
“This is why I don’t believe in your God!” exclaimed the girl’s father.
The young Christian man turned to look at the little girl. Her dark hair
framed a delicate face with soft features and a timid smile that wind its way
into any daddy’s heart. But where her eyes should have been, there were only
empty sockets in the skin. The child had been born without eyes!
“Here, feel her face!” commanded her father. Hardly able to believe his own
eyes, the young man gently touched the concave, smooth skin beneath her dark
brows. The empty sockets were hard, just skin with bone behind it. “What do you
think of your big God now?” asked her father, sarcastically.
Shocked but undaunted, the young man’s faith did not waiver. The miracles and
wonders he had witnessed in Brother Branham’s meetings only days before were
fresh on his mind.
“There is a man of God coming to Edmonton,” the young man said,
enthusiastically. “Let me take her to the meetings to be prayed for. I really
believe God can give her eyes.”
That was a bold statement to make, and even harder for the embittered father
to accept. He hesitated, but then said, “Well, if she gets eyes, we will believe
in your God.”
The evening meetings in Edmonton were held at the arena, and in those early
days of Brother Branham’s ministry, the building was filled to capacity long
before the service began. When the prayer line began, the little girl took her
place in the long line that wound around the interior of the arena.
As each person walked before the prophet of God, we can only speculate as to
what thoughts were in her little mind, or in that of her parents. A mother or
father would doubtless cling to any shred of hope that might be presented to
them. Was this Jesus Christ of Whom this man spoke really the Creator of the
universe? Would that God create new eyes in these bare sockets? Could the
prayers of this humble man really bring such a miracle to pass?
Finally it was her turn. With the Christian man only steps away on the
platform, she was brought before the small man with thinning dark hair and kind
eyes that seemed to be able to look into one’s very soul. But she could not see
him, for she had no eyes with which to perceive his appearance. The moment he
spoke to her, however, any fear she may have had must have vanished in the
presence of a love that was purer and stronger than that even of her beloved
mother.
Brother Branham prayed for her, but nothing happened.