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Something wonderful happened. I posted earlier today about a boy that was drowned, dead, non-responsive for over 15 minutes, who was brought to the hospital and then he awoke, and even more miraculously, he had no lingering effects of his drowning ordeal. The group swimming at the beach was a church youth group, and when the boy was swept out to sea, they began praying on their knees. It was a great story. I felt very good after reading it, and I was so grateful to be thinking of that all day long.
Something terrible happened. A Texas father threw his four-year-old son out of his car "like a bag of garbage" and left him standing on a West Texas highway. The father drove off. It was 3 am along a cactus-strewn area of nothing in the middle of nowhere. A passing motorist saw the boy move in the gloomy morning light and stopped to check out the situation. The motorist brought the boy to the hospital, and the doctors extracted 500 cactus spines from him. He was dehydrated too, but thankfully that was the extent of his injuries.
Have you ever been to West Texas? I have. There is nothing there. Except javelinas. Coyotes. Foxes. Creosote bushes. Cactus. Rattlesnakes. AND A FOUR-YEAR-OLD BOY! Here is a google street view photo of Interstate 20 as it winds into Sweetwater.
I was so upset reading this story I cried like a baby. I was distressed and angry and wretched. I prayed so hard for the Lord to perform justice on the world and for the rapture to occur so that the children would be safe in eternity with their Father. I thought about the kid's dad, and I was mad that the world has come to such a state where a person would even think of doing this let alone actually do it.
So I was thinking, how can I hang I emotionally until the rapture? I work with children in an elementary school. This is my fourth year working with children in school here in GA. I was a teacher in Maine for 12 years, working with kids in a depressed inner city from 1982 to 1994. Even though I was teaching in an inner city back then, the conditions I see now are worse. Not as many kids are bringing snacks to school as they used to. More children are on free and reduced lunch. More programs are starting that strive to put food in kids backpacks so they can eat over the weekend. They are wearing clothes that are too big and fall off them at recess as they run around. They wear clothes that they've outgrown and are so tight they literally can't sit down on the floor to put together a puzzle. They have old shoes taped together, live unsettling home lives, are getting evicted, moving a lot from one family member to other family member. In other words, I've never seen things so bad with these children, and I mourn over them. I pray over them. I love them.
Suffice it to say, children in these terrible times are much on my mind. When I read the story out of Texas, I lost it. It put me over the top.
But then I started thinking of the joy. With Jesus, there is always joy. I decided to focus on the child, and the miracles that had to have happened around the rescue of the boy that are just as miraculous as the rescue of the drowned boy up above. First, if you know four year olds, the fact that he stayed by the road is a miracle. That for the three hours he was stranded, he didn't move even an inch from the roadside was wonderful. Wandering into the desert would likely have been the end of him. The fact that no animal got to him is also wonderful. That a motorist spotted the boy in the gloom was also a miracle. Angels must have been tightly surrounding the boy and ministering to him. THAT is how to hang in there emotionally until the rapture- choose joy. Seek joy. Trust the Lord.
With Jesus, there is always joy to be found in any situation. Sometimes, we don't know how a situation turned out, but faith in Him means that we take to heart the verse that says "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." We know that these two boys were rescued, but for the ones where we don't know the end, trust Him to work it out to the good. (Romans 8:28). The verse doesn't say 'some things work together for the good' it says all things. Evil does exist in the world and it is more visible than ever. But Jesus works it out for those who love Him. And some day those of us who love Him, and the children, will be whisked away to His dwelling place in heaven to be glorified and freed from the effects of sin.
No more little boys will be abandoned. No more teens will be drowned. No more kids will be hungry or cold or sad. He is working all things to the good. In the midst of evil, choose joy. Trust Him when it seems there is no joy in sight. Because there is!!!!!!!!!
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Something terrible happened. A Texas father threw his four-year-old son out of his car "like a bag of garbage" and left him standing on a West Texas highway. The father drove off. It was 3 am along a cactus-strewn area of nothing in the middle of nowhere. A passing motorist saw the boy move in the gloomy morning light and stopped to check out the situation. The motorist brought the boy to the hospital, and the doctors extracted 500 cactus spines from him. He was dehydrated too, but thankfully that was the extent of his injuries.
Have you ever been to West Texas? I have. There is nothing there. Except javelinas. Coyotes. Foxes. Creosote bushes. Cactus. Rattlesnakes. AND A FOUR-YEAR-OLD BOY! Here is a google street view photo of Interstate 20 as it winds into Sweetwater.
I was so upset reading this story I cried like a baby. I was distressed and angry and wretched. I prayed so hard for the Lord to perform justice on the world and for the rapture to occur so that the children would be safe in eternity with their Father. I thought about the kid's dad, and I was mad that the world has come to such a state where a person would even think of doing this let alone actually do it.
So I was thinking, how can I hang I emotionally until the rapture? I work with children in an elementary school. This is my fourth year working with children in school here in GA. I was a teacher in Maine for 12 years, working with kids in a depressed inner city from 1982 to 1994. Even though I was teaching in an inner city back then, the conditions I see now are worse. Not as many kids are bringing snacks to school as they used to. More children are on free and reduced lunch. More programs are starting that strive to put food in kids backpacks so they can eat over the weekend. They are wearing clothes that are too big and fall off them at recess as they run around. They wear clothes that they've outgrown and are so tight they literally can't sit down on the floor to put together a puzzle. They have old shoes taped together, live unsettling home lives, are getting evicted, moving a lot from one family member to other family member. In other words, I've never seen things so bad with these children, and I mourn over them. I pray over them. I love them.
Suffice it to say, children in these terrible times are much on my mind. When I read the story out of Texas, I lost it. It put me over the top.
But then I started thinking of the joy. With Jesus, there is always joy. I decided to focus on the child, and the miracles that had to have happened around the rescue of the boy that are just as miraculous as the rescue of the drowned boy up above. First, if you know four year olds, the fact that he stayed by the road is a miracle. That for the three hours he was stranded, he didn't move even an inch from the roadside was wonderful. Wandering into the desert would likely have been the end of him. The fact that no animal got to him is also wonderful. That a motorist spotted the boy in the gloom was also a miracle. Angels must have been tightly surrounding the boy and ministering to him. THAT is how to hang in there emotionally until the rapture- choose joy. Seek joy. Trust the Lord.
With Jesus, there is always joy to be found in any situation. Sometimes, we don't know how a situation turned out, but faith in Him means that we take to heart the verse that says "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." We know that these two boys were rescued, but for the ones where we don't know the end, trust Him to work it out to the good. (Romans 8:28). The verse doesn't say 'some things work together for the good' it says all things. Evil does exist in the world and it is more visible than ever. But Jesus works it out for those who love Him. And some day those of us who love Him, and the children, will be whisked away to His dwelling place in heaven to be glorified and freed from the effects of sin.
No more little boys will be abandoned. No more teens will be drowned. No more kids will be hungry or cold or sad. He is working all things to the good. In the midst of evil, choose joy. Trust Him when it seems there is no joy in sight. Because there is!!!!!!!!!
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Oh my! This breaks my heart! How can a father do such a thing?
ReplyDeleteI love how you pointed out the plus side to the whole situation. Yes, I believe there was many angles protecting this boy.
These times are so dark. Come LORD Jesus, come.
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Thank you for the uplifting message here. I am very glad for the boy who survived the drowning, praise God! I also truly hope and pray the boy abandoned in such a horrible way by his father, be placed in a safe loving home!
ReplyDeleteI have a son stolen from me by paternal in laws who claim to be Christian. They have lied to my son about his identity, from who they really are, to even his name. They have also told him I am dead, to which he grieved for me, cried for me. I pray for him, as his mother so concerned for him, in much grief over this cruel injustice done to him and I, made especially worse because it is family who have done this and because they claim to be Christian. One is even a pastor. I see his website, and read the scriptures posted, and about the church activities and it touches on the righteous anger I keep at bay. For all the sins they have done or condoned, concerning me and my son, how they condemned me, denied me the help I needed, showing me no mercy, no compassion, and no forgiveness for all that they believe I am guilty of, most of it untrue. How they can shun me, treat me as though I don't exist, ignore my repeated attempts at communication, in love, and yet, portray their selves as caring, Godly people.
I keep praying and hoping, and trusting in The Lord, wondering and waiting anxiously, for The Rapture, to reunite me with both my sons, the one here, and the one who is already in heaven, safe with Jesus. Romans 8:28, is one of my favorite scriptures that I often confess, over myself and my son and over others I minister to and pray for.
The hearts of so many, even those who profess faith, are wicked, false, and cold. I don't even want the ones responsible for this injustice done to my son and I, to suffer God's wrath, or eternal damnation. I keep praying their eyes be opened to the truth and that they come to true repentant faith in Jesus and turn from their sins, and do right. I have great pity for them, for what they have done and are doing that they have justified and deny as being wrong, they believe they are safe, I don't, and I believe time will soon run out for them, as for many. I pray they repent and truly be saved, before it's too late! For I know our redemption is near!
Thank you again, and God bless you, always!
Hi Child of God,
ReplyDeleteI was sad about the situation for a while then I decided that negativity is not productive. If the early Christians could keep positive, especially Paul, then I decided I could too. Just like we hear our preachers say that love is not an emotion but a choice, so is joy. So I was trying to apply that message and choose to look on the positive side. If I don't work at it, I know I'd succumb to depression at how children are being treated these days ...
Anonymous, I know that injustice rankles and is a bitter taste in our mouths, always. It's hard to follow what Jesus said in those circumstances: to love our neighbor. But when these kind of things happen to me I work hard at remembering that Jesus will judge them, there WILL be justice; and to try and love as He loves. Before I was saved, I used to think being a Christian was easy, like all the believers were just on auto-pilot. But it isn't easy. It is very very hard. Keep up your prayers and talk to Jesus frequently. He hears you! And He will sustain you until the last day until the moment he brings you home to Him.
I'm praying for you and your children right now anonymous!
ReplyDeleteI can't bring myself to imagine how the child must have felt in that place, terrified and confused of why his own father would leave him alone. It reminds me of how Jesus was overcome with so much emotion that he actually wept at various instances in His ministry. The evil in this world knows no bounds, all the more reason for us to reach out to others in love and pray that God would deliver justice and restore the broken souls of people around us.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth – I was also so moved by both stories and in agony cried out “Maranatha”!
ReplyDeleteRemember that we grieve for the helpless and the vulnerable because HE grieves for them. If we are truly “born from above” we have his heart.
Then He reminded me of the verse He gave me yesterday which I posted on my facebook page:
This rainy morning----
by Craig Hanson on Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 8:03am
This morning while pondering all that Christ did and does for
me – choosing me, giving me my wife and kids and grand kids – rain ( it’s been
hot and very dry here for a long time) - the silly Cardinal singing out the
window - this verse came to mind:
Heb 12:1-4
And let us run with
endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on
whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful
death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is
seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. Think about all he endured when sinful people
did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up. NLT
Oh, that is AWFUL. :( I just read an article yesterday about how Somali parents are choosing to leave some of their kids to die because of the water shortage and famines, and how agonizing their choices to do so were... This is worse. This was simple cruelty.
ReplyDeletePraise the Lord, for His provision and rescue of these boys. That is a reason to rejoice!
Thank you so much for the encouragement, Elizabeth. I appreciate your blog very much. It's very informative and scriptural based, and I can tell Holy Spirit speaks to you and you listen. May you continue to be used to speak the truth, and bring people to Christ. God bless you and your blog!
ReplyDeleteTo the other anonymous, thank you for praying. I appreciate all prayers and stand in agreement with them, in the name of Jesus. God bless you.
I pray also for all people, whatever their need be, and that they receive, according to God's will!