A Miracle in the Snow
Dear Friends,
This FEBRUARY the forecast is for snow! I don’t know if snow is a threat or promise to you but it was a miracle to Wendy Becker. She and her family were planning the funeral of her 29-year-old-son Matthew who was believed to have perished aboard a small plane that had crashed into a mountain side a few days earlier during the snows of Montana in Canada when news came through that he along with one other co worker had survived what rescue workers had described as “un-survivable”. They managed to trudge through the snow and the steep terrain from the crash site for 29 hours, often in subfreezing temperatures, until they reached a highway and flagged down a passing motorist. They called it ‘A Miracle in the Snow’ and although it happened over a decade ago now, it stirs me it terms of my own relationships to never to give up on those whose lives may have come crashing down in the snows of some subtle temptation they gave in to or an avalanche of testing that they failed to pass.
Many a parent with a child away from God has despaired of them ever coming out of the spiritual cold that they’ve chosen. They look at the emotional wreckage caused, the relational damage done, perhaps even the physical injuries inflicted, and cry for what they think is lost to them. But it’s always too soon to think it’s over.
This VALENTINES day I encourage you not to give up on those that you love if they are away from the Lord. Hope may sometimes be hard to hang onto, but we have the promise of God that “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.” (Psalm 126:5-6) Never feel that all those months and years of praying and weeping and sowing the seed of God’s Word into your loved one’s life will ever return un-harvested.
How God does it, when God does it, whether or not we may even be here to see it is totally in God’s hands, but we can be sure that the One who loved us and gave Himself for us is persistently and graciously pursuing that lost sheep we love.
As a pastor I can’t begin to tell you of those loved ones that my heart has ached for over the years and in certain cases still aches for. Those who had tasted the goodness of God but lost their way with Him through a careless word said, a bad decision made or an unbiblical bit of teaching taken to heart. I Thank God that most of them have gloriously come home to Jesus and now live for Him with the fervour of one who loves much because they’ve been forgiven much. Let us not plan the funeral of those who seemingly have lost their faith too soon then. Remember there is a difference between a chapter and a book. Those dark times in the life of that one we love are not the whole book; they’re a chapter, or even a series of chapters, but many a book with sad chapters has had a happy ending. Don’t judge the ending by the dark chapters in the middle of a book. Don’t decide the game is lost because your team is losing at halftime.
If we think it’s over, we may actually be contributing to their continued falling away! By resorting to nagging we will only drive them farther off track, It’s not that we need to compromise and accept what can never be acceptable to God, but by slowly giving up on our prayer of faith for them, or by just withdrawing from them when our unconditional love may actually be their best hope, we fail to love them as God has loved us. For when someone we love is the least loveable, they need our love the most. As long as there’s breath, there’s hope. It just isn’t over so long as they have breath to cry out to God for rescue. So keep on fighting for them in the Throne Room of Almighty God with a faith that defies the lie that it’s no use. Keep on loving them. Keep on gently sowing seed, as the Holy Spirit opens up a natural opportunity. Keep on asking God to make their way of life unsatisfying to them, telling the Lord to do whatever it takes, within His will, to bring them to home.
A Miracle In the Snow ought to remind us all this FEBRUARY that Jesus is still bringing back alive loved ones that had been spiritually given up for dead. This VALENTINES why don’t we do more than anonymously send a card to someone we want to love us and stay true to those who still need us practically, prayerfully and passionately to love them. Just a thought!
Your Friend and Pastor
Shaun