A New Song For Claudia

It was the dream of a life time. I was 21, studying opera in Italy. I had taken a break from my routine to visit a charming chalet high in the Swiss Alps. Sitting at the breakfast table with my host, Francis Schaeffer, I gazed at the snow covered peaks in silence. His question startled me and caught me off guard. "Claudia, did you know God when you were a child?"

"I had a thinking rock," I said, "where I thought about God. I worried there, too--about my dad who was a major stationed in India during WWII."

"When did you become a Christian?"

"Well . . . uh, I guess I've always been a Christian. My father told me all about God and I believed him. But poor Daddy was out of control with alcohol and drugs."

Schaeffer listened as I summarized my life story. "I was addicted to drugs and alcohol, too," I said. The coversation reminded me of a California Christmas three years earlier.

My friends and had begun drinking early that day. When we arrived after midnight at the San Diego Yacht Club, I was so drunk I slipped into the dark, freezing-cold bay. I gasped for breath but salty water poured in instead. As I went down for what I thought was the last time, I screamed, I can't die now! I never knew why I was living!" I don't remember who rescued me, but I awoke the next day with a miserable hangover. "Oh God," I prayed. "If you're there and you really exist, please put my feet on the path that takes me to you."

Soon after, my music dream materialized. I was going to study opera in Milano, near La Scala, the famous opera house. I studied diligently for three years . . . then I met a New Yorker, named Doris. She invited me to a Bible study and persisted until I agreed to go.

The Bible teacher, Francis Schaeffer, emphasized that sin had separated us from God but that God had provided a way back through His Son Jesus Christ. I was impressed with his brilliance but his words baffled me. Two weeks later, Dr. Schaeffer brought his charming, captivating wife, Edith. She invited me to their Chalet in the Swiss Alps called L'Abri ("shelter" in French). Two things enticed me. Her sparkling eyes and the fact that I'd heard she was a fabulous cook! I accepted readily.

Here I sat with the teacher I had grown to admire. We talked for a while, and then he fired his final question. "Claudia, do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, died for you?"

I bolted out of my chair, headed for the door, turned and said, "Nobody loves me that much! I'll have to think about it."

"Why, Claudia? Why do you have to think about it?" Speechless I moved back to the table and sat down. "I don't know, I don't know, but my heart wants to say yes." Peace and forgiveness swept over me like the waves of the ocean.

"Don't you think you should thank your Heavenly Father? Bow your head and the Holy Spirit will give you the words."

"I have a Heavenly Father and a Holy Spirit? Wow! I have to go tell Doris!"

I returned to America, and joined the Navigator organization in Colorado Springs where I met my future husband, Hal. I left America to study opera, but came home with a new song--and a new love--in my heart.

Hal and Claudia had five children and now have eight grand children and two great grand daughters who make their lives rich and full.