Pocahontas

I’ll bet that most American kids only know about Pocahontas from the Walt Disney movie. I’ve never seen it, but I know enough about it to know that it had almost nothing to do with reality other than a couple of names. For one thing, she was only friends with John Smith, not a lover (she was a girl when she met him, and he was a grown man). She instead married John Rolfe and had a son. For another thing, she became a Christian, which I’m positive the politically-correct movie forgot to mention.

Granted, she accepted the Lord only after being kidnapped and raised by English people, and one wonders if she did it out of obligation, not desire. Not too much is known about her personal thoughts on life and the spiritual realm. One thing is certain, and that is that even after growing up and becoming a free woman, she chose to remain among the English and not return to her tribe, though she always worked for peace between the two people groups.

And now I’m getting to the point of this little essay…the fact remains that Pocahontas did become a Christian, and since she truly did leave her former pagan beliefs behind and turn to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, that means she’s in Heaven with Jesus right now. This did not really occur to me until a couple of nights ago when I was thinking about Pocahontas (I’d been reading about her on Wikipedia) during my before-bed prayer time. Suddenly the Holy Spirit came to me, and I had a vision of Pocahontas…with Jesus behind her! She looked like a fresh teenage girl, looking happy and at peace, and Jesus’ hands were on her shoulders. I couldn’t see His face, only His hands and a white robe. Then I heard Him speak:

“Pocahontas is My loved one. She left her family and her home to be with Me.”

Wow…that was pretty amazing! I’ll never be able to think of Pocahontas again the same way. The story usually goes that she caught ill in England and died, and that was the end of her. But it wasn’t…she is in paradise with Him, living more fully than ever before.

She ventured outside of her well-known comfort zone to embrace the beliefs of foreigners she knew not much about. God is challenging us all to do the same thing…break out of our own comfort zones with our houses and our conveniences to seek after Him. God rewarded Pocahontas with eternal life…he will do the same for us.

And what does this have to do with Grace Fellowship per se? We’re all part of God’s family, and at some point we’ll meet Pocahontas face to face! What other religion on earth can claim anything as amazing as that?