Have you watched Susie’s business grow?  Of course, Susie’s Lemonade is a fictitious TV-commercial corporation founded by a young girl who started with a lemonade stand.  She has now built her roadside stand into a large corporation, using advanced technology.

I was reminded of this commercial as I listened to the news that Steve Jobs died today of cancer.  Jobs was a modern-day hero to many engineers and technical people.  Like all Apple/Mac connoisseurs, my husband followed Jobs through thick and thin.  When others were predicting the demise of Apple Corp., he was buying new Macs.  His last request before my husband died in May was that I get him an iPad for his birthday in July.

Jobs was not publicly a religious man, but was a marketing genius.  He understood how to motivate and inspire people. Jobs took a small group of rag-tag engineers and transformed technology, thereby revolutionizing the way we do almost everything from business to Bible study.

Yet, with his death, his most lasting legacy may be little more than a business epithet.

Today, I had supper with a family who has changed their entire family tree because of the transforming power of Jesus.  My good friend, Paula, was raised in a most dysfunctional family.  Her mother suffered from chronic depression all of her childhood and teen years.  Her father was a philanderer.  Her parents finally divorced. Paula and her husband came to know the Lord as small children; and they have always desired to live like Christ.

Slowly, their entire family began to change.  One by one all of their parents, sisters, brothers, grandparents surrendered their lives to the Lord.  Even aunts, uncles and cousins know and love the Lord now.

“Tell me about your childhood,” Paula’s daughter asked her mother during the meal conversation.  As we moved from the dinner table, Paula began to share an overarching view of how she and her brother had lived as children.  “Our mother either slept or yelled at us.  She was asleep for days.  If we wanted dinner, we had to fix it.  No one prepared meals for us.  I learned to make a grilled cheese sandwich by the time I was eight years old.  My brother and I lived on grilled cheese for a long time.”

Her daughter sat amazed.  This was not the family into which she was born.  These weren’t the grandparents she’s known all her life.  Christ had changed this entire family.

Later, we sat down for a simple Bible study, just the three friends.  Because it is a casual family meeting, our iPhones beeped during the meeting with messages and reminders.  Our Biblical illustrations came from the Internet.  Our scripture came from our iPhones.

As I drove home from our study, I heard of Jobs’ death.

While the technical know-how of Jobs and his engineers has changed so much of our superficial world, only Christ can reshape the hearts of an entire family.  Tonight, I’m praying for the Jobs family; but I’m also thanking God for the supernatural transformational power of a Savior who came to redeem a world.