A Christian Slave Girl's Faith Converts A Nation

      In around 320 A.D. there was a young Cappadocian slave girl named Nino brought to a region controlled by the people known as Georgians - an Eastern branch of the Iberians who lived between the black sea and the Caspian. Georgians were a proud and warlike people, respected by their close neighbors as a fierce nation. They worshiped pagan gods.

     This slave girl's past is now unclear, but she was a woman who gained the notice of this culture that now owned her because she spent so very much of her free time in prayer. And her comportment and demeanor were graceful and winning to their eye.

     She first emerged to the Georgians as something more because of a custom that they had. Whenever a loved child or infant became very ill, it was their tradition to go door to door with the child so that if any friend or neighbor knew a remedy they had not tried, the child might yet be saved.

     One certain mother had a child that she was fearful might die. She had tried all she knew, and exhausted the neighbors she might ask, but no remedy was working. She decided to ask the slave girl as well, despite her low status.

     The slave girl replied that she herself knew no remedy, but she prayed to a Jesus who could heal what otherwise could not be healed. The mother of the child asked her to please pray then. The slave girl, named Nino, placed the child on a rough blanket on the floor and then prayed in concentration to Jesus. As if by this Jesus who was prayed to, the child was suddenly well.

     Word of this spread, and more and more people came to her for this. Eventually, there came a day when the Queen of that land began to suffer from a very bad malady, and she could gain no relief. She somehow learned of the Christian slave girl and sent for her. It is said that the slave girl was overwhelmed at the thought and too modest to go to the palace.  I am not sure how it is that she managed to delay going to the very Queen herself, but in the end, hurting badly, this Queen Nona had herself brought to the slave girl.

     Having the queen lay on a blanket, Nino prayed to Jesus for her, and she too was healed. Overjoyed and convinced of Jesus's power, the queen converted and became a believer. She tried to get her husband, King Mirian III, to convert as well. He was indulgent and tolerant of his Queen's newfound beliefs but rebuffed her many attempts to convince him.

     Yet one day, while hunting in the forest with his men, a strange thing occurred. It unexpectedly became very dark in the forest - extraordinarily dark. The hunters became separated from each other in the darkness, and the King found himself groping in the thick blackness unable to find his way to anywhere or to see a thing. He became afraid because this was obviously abnormal, and it occurred to him to try praying to Jesus, the God of Queen Nona.

     I don't know how his words were preserved, but it is written that he prayed as follows: 'If that Christ that the captive preached to my wife is truly God, then let Him now deliver me from this darkness, that I too might forsake all other Gods and worship You.'

     The darkness lifted and it became day again within the forest. The relieved and grateful king found his hunting friends and returned home. He converted immediately after this and had the slave girl instruct him in how to properly worship God.

     He was sincere in his conversion, and the religion became his nation's official religion by his decree in 327A.D. (It was the 2nd Officially Christian nation, after Armenia). He sent to a certain Roman emperor named Constantine (see how God sets up His dominos!) to ask that priests be sent to the Georgians, and history records that Constantine was very happy to assist in this.

     This was done in a way so typical of Jesus and God. The least of people, the humblest of women - a slave - changes the course of an entire nation through her beautiful and unshakable faith. And because her position in the world is so humble, it is obvious to all among the Georgians that it was God who accomplished it. Praise God for his use of the small things in the world to affect the great.

     And God's use of the powerful Emperor of Rome - just think of it. When the Emperors began to become Christian, not only did they desire to spread Christianity, but it became desirable among those who feared them to establish this religion as common ground, and the mighty network of Roman roads allowed fast and easy missionary travel, while the common use of Latin allowed many to understand the scriptures in Latin and then share them with their own people in their local language.  Praise to our God!