No More Dayken

"Amen," whispered Grandma after Aspen knelt at her side and asked Jesus to be her Savior. "Now you'll always have a friend close beside you," said Grandma, giving Aspen a warm hug. "You won't see Him, but He is real and He's right there with you. Talk to Him every day, and read some verses from your Bible each day too. Then ask Him to help you understand what He's saying to you."Aspen nodded. "He'll be with me all the time, right? He'll be my friend?""He absolutely will," Grandma assured her.Aspen sat thinking to herself for a moment. Then she glanced at her grandmother. "Grandma, do you remember my friend Dayken?""Dayken!" Grandma exclaimed with a laugh. "You mean the imaginary friend you had when you were five years old?""Yes." Aspen laughed too. "Back then, Dayken was my best friend, even if she was just pretend. I couldn't see her, but I really felt like there was someone for me to play with all day long. When I had Dayken, I was never lonely.""Did anyone ever laugh at you for having an imaginary friend?" asked Grandma."Yeah, sometimes. But I didn't care. Dayken was important to me, even though I knew she was make-believe. Of course, after a while I grew out of what Mom called my 'Dayken phase,' and I stopped pretending she was real." She thought for a moment. "But you just said that now I'll have Jesus with me all the time. That will be much better because He's real--not just an imaginary friend, right?""That's right, and you'll never get too old for your new friend Jesus," Grandma assured her. "People may not always believe in Him, and they might even laugh at you for believing you have a friend no one can see, but He is very real and alive. As you grow older, you'll see Him at work in your life. He'll be the best real friend you'll ever have. And even though you can't see Him now, He's promised that one day you'll see Him face-to-face!"-Phyllis I. Klomparens