A Life Under Pressure
Afrooz, an Iranian Muslim, was not looking for Jesus when she found him. She was looking for help. For peace of mind. For something to ease her pain. Her life had unraveled under the stress of work, school, and nagging doubts about her Islamic faith. Perhaps, she thought, I should just leave the stress behind and become a poet. Poets are highly esteemed in Iranian culture, and this would be far better for her blood pressure.
She cried out to Allah when feeling overwhelmed by life. No, she admitted later, she did more than that. She threatened. “If you are going to help me,” she prayed, “tonight you should show yourself to me. If you don’t show me a sign tonight, I will turn to this material life and be a sinner.”
A Vision of Jesus
Then she fell asleep and had a vision: “The room was full of light. I thought it was morning, but later I realized it was midnight. I lifted my head and was seeing Jesus Christ. He was wearing white. Although I had never seen a picture of the Messiah, I recognized that this could be no one else.”
She pulled out a pen and paper to take notes if he spoke, and he did, saying, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Then the vision ended. This angered her. She had no context whatsoever for the words he spoke. “I was looking for Muhammad’s god,” she recalled, “and Jesus the Messiah comes to me! What is this? So I closed up the prayer mat and said, ‘I am done with this! I am going to sleep!”
Confirmation Through a Coworker
The next night she again saw the Messiah in a vision. “Didn’t I tell you to come under my shadow and come with me and be safe?” he asked her. Now she was truly perplexed. When the vision ended, she thought, This is the Messiah coming to me? Is this the real God? I should be seeing Allah or Muhammad.
At Afrooz’s office job, a coworker noted that she seemed out of sorts. She lied, telling him that she hadn’t seen her mother in America for some time and that it was bothering her. Suddenly, the young man blurted out that he followed Jesus and said, “God is always with you. God is love. Bring your complaints to him.” She was stunned. “Usually in Iran,” she reflected later, “people working in a company don’t come up and say, ‘I’m a Christian.'”
So Afrooz showed him the words that had come to her. He discreetly opened his Bible—she had never seen one before—and pointed to Matthew 11:28. She was amazed as she read, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
To be continued…
Date: 19th July 2025
Martyr: Afrooz
Location: Iran
Source: The Voice of the Martyrs “I am n”
Author: Not Specified
Suffering Saturday 152
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