“A Career Between God’s Bookends”

A True Story of God’s Sovereign Guidance in My Life

By Kevin E. Jesmer   11-28-2016

Psalm 139:16

“Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (NIV)

There is one true story in my life that has proven to me, with physical evidence that Jesus is alive and that he is the Sovereign Lord who guides our lives by his sovereign hand. It is the story, I like to call, “The Two Gideon Bible Bookends.”

When I was eight years old, in 1972, my friend gave me a Gideon Bible. It was white with gold leaf. Embossed on the lower right corner was the word “nurse”. Maybe his mother was a nurse, I am not sure. But he gave it to me. I was very inspired by that Bible. I was so inspired that I wrote in the inside cover that I would read it 1/2 an hour every day or I would pray five times in a day and I drew a Remembrance Day wreath on a cross to prove my sincerity. But I didn’t read it and I didn’t pray. I just tossed it in the back of my desk and then into a box and forgot about it.  I did save it however in a small box with a lot of other things I forgot about. And there is sat for over two decades.

The vow I made in 1972. I wrote in it in 1972. My sister Karen claimed ownership in 1973 and wrote over my name.

Me, Kevin Jesmer in 1972

Now, I want to point out that I was not a religious boy. I was brought up as a nominal Catholic because my mom was Catholic. My dad did not believe in Jesus and went to church occasionally because of my mother. We went to church once every two weeks. It was part of our biweekly Sunday tradition of driving around town and looking at new yard improvements and going for lunch. There were times when we went to church once a month. I was not a believer, but I liked church. Most times I was bored, but I did feel peaceful. I was an unbeliever who was part of a Catholic culture. When I was fourteen years old I stopped going to church and embarked on a life that did not include Jesus or the church at all. I gave my heart to a life of pleasure seeking and enlightened self-interest. The things of God never came to mind. This was truly what was in my heart. By this time I completely forget about that little white Gideon Bible stored away in the box.

In 1986 Jesus began to move powerfully in my life. I had just finished my college education at Red River Community College in Winnipeg Manitoba. I got a degree in Chemical Technology. I even got my first job related to my degree at the Creamette Company of Canada as a quality control person. At the age of 22 years, I did become a Christian. I was not looking to be a Christian. Jesus came to me by sending a Bible teacher and introducing me to a Christian church. After studying God’s word for a few months, Jesus helped me to realize that he existed and that his Kingdom was real. One day, at Michigan State University, I could yield my heart to Christ and his Gospel.  I became involved in campus Gospel mission. I want to point out, at no time in my life did I ever think of become a nurse. It never crossed my mind. It was never a lifelong dream. I had thought, for several years, that I was going to be a quality control person in the food industry or a battery factory or work in a lab. As Jesus was taking hold of my life and leading me, that little white Gideon Bible stood in the box at my parent’s house in Thompson Manitoba, five hundred miles away.

Then another movement of God occurred in my life. It was very hard for me to remain in Winnipeg because of opposition to my life as a Christian, (that is another story). At that time, a Pastor friend of mine, Teddy H., called me and asked me to come to Triton UBF, at Triton College in River Grove Illinois, and study the Bible, participate in the ministry and …..study nursing! I never thought about moving to Chicago or studying nursing. It was totally Pastor Teddy’s initiative. I prayed about it and felt that it was God’s will and decided to go. I sold a washer and drier, fixed a car, packed all of my personal belongings in the back and drove 1,000 miles to Chicago. Simply out of a spirit of obedience, I began studying nursing and teaching the Bible through the Triton UBF ministry. I wanted to emphasize here, that studying nursing was never my own personal choice. It was presented to me by a pastor and I just did it out of obedience to what I saw was the will of God in my life. I was never trying make that little Gideon Bible a self-fulfilled prophecy. It was not a lifelong dream that I was trying to make happen.

It took me five years of studying in order to get my bachelor’s degree in nursing. I got my associates degree in 1994 from Triton College. I worked and studied two more years and got my bachelor’s degree in nursing from Elmhurst College Chapel on May 19^th, 1997. The very last meeting of the graduating class was held at the Elmhurst Chapel in campus. It was the “Blessing Of The Hands” ceremony. Elmhurst College is a UCC affiliated church. The nurses came to the stage and our hands were blessed and we were prayed for. At the end of the ceremony there were two, grey haired senior ladies at the exit. They each had a box. When I passed one them they congratulated me, reached into the box and handed me a little, white Gideon Bible with gold leaf. It was a brand-new copy, like the Bible that I receive in 1972, except for the gold embossed nurse in the right lower corner.

Me, Kevin Jesmer at graduation time.

A year later (1998) I went back to Winnipeg to visit my parents. I took a cardboard box full of my old things back home. In that box was the old, white Gideon Bible. I looked at it and realized that Jesus was communicating to me 24 years previous. In placing that Bible in a young, unbelieving, boy’s hands and inspiring his heart to read it, and placing that gold embossed word, “nurse” on the right lower corner, Jesus was telling me that one day I would be a Christian nurse. And 25 years later, he made it happen! There was no need for the gold embossed nurse logo in 1997 because I had become that nurse. I never tried to make it happen. I could never make myself a Christian. I never had a thought of being a nurse. It was Jesus, the God who is living and guiding my life, who made it happen. He made it happen to show me that he is with me. He wants me to trust him and allow him to be King and Lord of my life. He wants me to trust in him as I serve him throughout my life time. Jesus is indeed the Sovereign Lord of all Creation. Has he been trying to communicate with you? How has Jesus been leading your life over the last 25 years?