Edvard Munch, The Kiss, Wikipedia, by permission, public domain, death of the artist
This is getting a bit Scheherazade-ish in the telling, but wait again for all that was going on outside the mine …
I want to take you back to that morning of the cave-in.
One of the miners, heading out the door, came back, took his wife in his arms, and held her tight, seeming not to wish to let her go.
Another miner went off to work without a kiss, because his wife was angry with him.
Another frequently reminded his wife of the papers she would need if ever a tragedy occurred.
For another, August 5, 2010 was his first day on the job.
There were so many stories; stories of teenage sons stepping up to take the place of their fathers while the rescue attempts went forward, stories of a sister who was as faithful as any wife in her vigil, stories of government officials, spending time and money on what they believed to be an utterly hopeless effort.
All of these anecdotes remind us as we pray, that life doesn’t always give us a heads’ up before disaster strikes, but if we will walk with the Lord, we will never be undone and never be put to shame. There is probably much more preparation in our lives than ever we acknowledge, and the wise listen and take heed, waiting upon the Lord.
Those we know who find themselves in darkness, or who discover a dark place in their hearts, nearly always had or were given warning, but the warning to us is this, that wherever they are and in whatever danger they are found, God knows them. He knows exactly, precisely where they are in their faith or unbelief, in their pain, in their hope or the loss of any hope they may have had. He knows . . . He can reach them. We must trust that, if He wants us to come with Him as He “drills” down into their captivity, it matters that we take up the massive power of His Word and begin to chip away at the slab of deception that bars the way of their escape.
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