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A WORD FROM THE PASTOR
He Does Care !
This is a story of an anguished father who mourns the loss of his oldest son. The boy has been killed in war. The father is grief-stricken. He will not eat or sleep. He walks alone on the beach for hours. A friend tries to persuade him to leave the beach and come out of his depression. The father says to his friend, "I have been out here all day thinking about him and always wanting to have him with me. I know I have got to let him go. I have got to, but I cannot do it today." Some of you can identify with that father's deep hurt. The loss of a loved one is a dreadful storm. Today's Gospel tells us that when the storms of life are raging, Jesus does care. When it seems one cannot hold on a moment longer, God does care. When the waters threaten to engulf one, HE DOES CARE!
The 1989, an Armenian earthquake needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill 30,000 people. Moments after that earthquake had stopped, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw the building had been leveled. Looking at that mass of stones and rubble, his heart sank until he remembered a promise he had made to his little boy, "No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you."
Driven by that promise, he found the area closest to his son's room and began to pull back the rocks and dig out the dirt. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children. They were saying things like, "It's too late. You know they're dead. You can't help." Even a police officer encouraged him to give up. But that dad refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and then thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw, his energy was gone, but he refused to quit. Finally, after thirty-eight gut-wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son's voice. He called out his boy's name, "Arman! Arman!" A voice answered him saying, "Dad, it's me!" Then that little boy added priceless words that dad will remember to the day he dies: "Dad, I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive you would save me, and that when you saved me they would be saved too. Because you promised Dad, 'No matter what, son, I'll always be there for you.'"
Dear friends, we should remember the promise of Jesus so much more! We should rest in the presence of Jesus dwelling within us so much more, and we shall rely on the power of Jesus so much more, knowing when he says we'll cross over, we will make it to the other side!
In the Service of the Lord,
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