Rescued ...

Did you happen to watch the television coverage of the miners being rescued from the collapsed mine in Chile? It was hard to miss the news announcing the long-awaited rescue after 69 days underground, but I was also captivated by the actual rescue process. I was heading to bed as they were getting ready to bring the first miner up, but in the preparation process of getting everything ready and doubled checked, I fell asleep! I woke up so disappointed that I had missed the first miner out, but was soon drawn into the next rescue ... and the next ... and the next. Each time one of the men would appear, they were welcomed into the arms of their loved ones and then the entire crowd would break out into song, singing the Chilean National Anthem ... an amazing flood of emotions as you watched and celebrated each one ... I just couldn’t get enough.

One thing that really impacted me was how they chose the order in which the miners would be freed ... the ones who were in weaker condition ... physically, mentally or emotionally ... would be out first, while the stronger ones would be last. And it sounded like this order was determined by the miners, themselves! Can you imagine?! I’m sorry, but I’m afraid if I had been a part of that heroic group and was told we would be rescued (after being underground for almost 70 days!!), but that we’d have to go one at a time and the strongest would go last, I’m pretty sure I’d starting faking a cough. Seriously! Can you imagine how much love those men had for each other to put one in front of the other, not knowing if that one person in front of them would be the last that could ever go up the ever-fragile tunnel out?! Do you call that faith ... love ... selflessness ... raw courage ... or plain insanity? Wow. What was even more astounding was the response of the families to the news where their loved ones fell on the list. As they interviewed the different families, the correspondent would ask them what it was like to know their family member was number [blank] on the list, and more than once I heard something like this ... ‘being the last just means he’s one of the strongest and I am so proud and so thankful for that’.

Being the last just means he’s one of the strongest ... Sounds like an ‘opposite world’ concept to me.

At the same time these miraculous rescues were going on, our school was going through a really hard time. In two weeks time, we lost two Dad’s at the kids’ school ... both sudden, both painful, both overwhelmingly confusing to my Spirit. One afternoon, I was on my knees before God just crying my heart out to Him ... Jesus, we just need you ... you are our only hope in this world of pain ... No more crying, no more pain right? ... Jesus, it is your promise to come back for us, but can’t you just come now?! I know that many do not yet know you and you’re waiting on their hearts to choose you, but can’t you come for SOME of us now?! For those of us who are so ready to go Home ... Come Jesus ... Come ...

And then I had this revelation ... Isn’t that kind of what He’s doing? ... ‘coming for SOME of those who are so ready to go’ ... the many we seemed to have lost over these most recent months are all just getting the first shuttles out ... or capsules up, however you want to look at it!! While we have no say as to the order of the line in which we find ourselves waiting, could our position in the line imply the strength to stand there? ... I believe it might. But, if I’ve accepted anything these past several months it is that I certainly don't feel very strong ... tired, weary, overwhelmed maybe ... but strong?! Not so much. At least not on my own, any way ... what’s funny is that whenever I start to feel ‘strong enough’, it’s not long before God shows me again how truly ‘unable’ I am. In true ‘opposite world’ fashion, it is in my weakness when I feel most hopeful and victorious. Does that make any sense, at all?! It does to Him ...

1 Samuel 2:9 helps shed Light on this issue of strength ... ‘It is not by strength that one prevails’ ... Zechariah 4:6 clarifies further with this Word from the Lord as His response to how the temple would be rebuilt: ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’ ... Isaiah 40:29 says ‘He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak’ ... That verse implies weariness and weakness are prerequisites to His strength ... There is no doubt of our true source of strength as we stand in this line waiting for our own rescue.

We actually all have a lot in common with those miners and the situation in which they found themselves ... maybe our darkness was created by tragedy in our life ... or maybe it's created by mounds and mounds of sin as we walk through life relying on, loving and believing in things other than God ... things that have shown themselves to be untrustworthy and unreliable. Whatever the cause of our darkness, eventually our foundation will be rocked and our lives built on anything but Him will collapse ... it is then that we realize we can never dig ourselves out of the wreckage ... but there is a way out ... one way ... and Jesus is it. I’ve been reading a lot of the Old Testament since my trip to Israel (so hungry for history of The Land!) and have been amazed at how God’s heart has been broken not just by His Creation who has chosen to follow other gods, but even by those of us who have accepted other gods/religions as legitimate alternatives for others devotion and affection. God’s Word is FULL of warnings and even pleads for us to not allow idols and false teachings in or around us ... the belief that there are many ways to Heaven may be politically correct, but it does not change the Truth ... and Truth, alone, is what sets us free ... John 14:6 ... Jesus said, ‘I am the Way and the Truth and the Light; no one comes to the Father except through me’.

My mind keeps going back to the moment each miner stepped out of that rescue capsule ... emotional ... inspiring ... gives me goosebumps! But I can’t help but think how much greater is the singing in Heaven when a new Believer steps out of their darkness into life with Jesus ... any how even GREATER is the song each time a new shuttle of loved ones arrives Home, into the arms of a Heavenly Father, a Loving Brother and likely a whole family who has been patiently awaiting their loved ones rescue ... can you imagine walking into the loving arms of Jesus ...

Rescued, indeed.





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