Pure Revelation-A True Story

Two things have inspired this post. #1 Last Sunday I taught the R.S. lesson on Revelation and #2 Last night we attended a Nintendo party at our friends home.

When I told this story to a girl at the party, she gave me a look of disbelief, as though God doesn't care about all the hopes and dreams of his children. This is a true story, and it is told exactly as it occurred nearly two decades ago....

When I was in the fifth grade my parents finally relented and bought us a Nintendo game system. It was purchased on the condition that we would play educational games on it as well as "fun" ones. Hence the reason I can wipe the floor with Tom going head to head on Donkey Kong Jr. Math! But, that's a story for another day...I loved Super Mario Brothers. I played it as much as I possibly could. I thought about how to beat it constantly. I have to say I was pretty good at it, the best in my family at least. Although that may not be saying much, Kori has never been good at video games, Tammies' hands were always sweaty and too slippery and therefore she lacked control on the plastic controller, Tyler and Bucky were too little and were no match for an older, more coordinated sister, and Dallin, Emily, and Kenzie weren't even around to contend with! That said, the responsibility feel upon me as the best Nintendo player in the family to beat the game. It was all new territory for me, I hadn't seen King Koopa beat yet, and by the time I got to the end of level nine I was all out of ideas. Time and again I tried, nothing worked, I couldn't run under him, and his stupid little hammers hit me every time. Frustrated I went to bed. That night I had a dream, a revelation if you will. I was playing Nintendo, I was at the boss King Koopa at the end of Level 9. Princess Toadstool was right there, I could feel it...K.K. stood there, throwing his hammers, jumping up and down on his bridge. Behind him was the lever I had to hit to cause the bridge to crumble beneath K.K. and lead my to P. Toadstool. That's when I saw it all happen, Mario calmly waited until the hammers had been thrown and K.K. was on solid ground, Mario ran at top Mario speed and jumped right between the hammers and the top of K.K.'s head to land directly on the lever bringing K.K. to his death, and Mario to his Princess. I saw all of this so clearly in my dream that when I woke up I could picture everything that had happened. All day at school I went over the events in my mind, determined to try it as soon as I got home from school.

After school I gathered my brothers and sisters around me and told them that I knew exactly how to beat the game once and for all. Then, just as in my dream, I proceeded to do exactly what had been shown to me in my "revelation". And just like in my dream I sailed over and between King Koopa and his hammers unscathed! My brothers and sisters cheered and I was the hero.

To this day I can still see the dream vividly in my mind like it was yesterday. Maybe it was stupid, but it was important to me. And thus we see that God Answers all of our prayers, even that of a ten year old girl intent on beating her first video game.