I’m fascinated by all the ways, dramatic and ordinary, by which people come to faith in Jesus. Nicolas Herman (1614-1691) of Lorraine, France was converted by a tree. Seriously! When he was eighteen, he came upon a tree stripped of its leaves in winter. The sheer wonder of leaves returning the following spring, to be followed by blossoms and fruit, became for Nicolas a powerful symbol of God’s transforming power. As he asked God to transform his heart, he sensed God’s presence within him. The son of peasants, he joined the French military in exchange for food and daily essentials. He was seriously wounded in the Thirty Years War, with an injury that left him in chronic pain for the rest of his life.
At age twenty-six, he took a job as a cook in a monastery and adopted the name Brother Lawrence. His desire to incorporate God’s presence into meal preparation and cleanup exceeded the conventional. He became famous for practicing the presence of God in the most menial of tasks. “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer,” he said.
Shortly before he died, Nicolas was interviewed by Father Joseph de Beaufort and his comments written down. His brothers in the monastery added sixteen letters found in his personal effects and published them. The Practice of the Presence of God has never gone out of print for three hundred years and has sold twenty million copies in English alone. When he went to work in the kitchen, he prayed: