17. 06.
On Friday, June 13, we celebrated the birth of our third child, Evan Alexander. What a blessing it is to receive such a precious gift from God.
At 7:00 pm, we got to the hospital. At 8:08 pm Evan was born (very quick, I know!) At about 9:30, I was on my way downstairs to get myself a drink from the cafeteria when I ran into someone I knew, who is on the volunteer fire department. While I was talking to him, his pager went off, it was a report that a child had gone missing in the town where I live. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, other than that sick feeling a person gets upon hearing such horrifying news.
I left the hospital at 12:00 am and went to the office a bit to make the card you see in this post. Finished up around 1:00 and headed home for the night. The kids were at my in-laws, so was alone.
On my way home, two emergency vehicles passed me, one being a dive team from the Office of the Fire Commissioner. When I got into town, I noticed several trucks and individuals searching through the town with flashlights. I then drove over to where I saw several hundred people gathered at the man-made lake in town. I stopped and asked someone if this was still about the child that went missing. It was, so I asked if I could help. I signed myself up to help with the search, then went home and got some warmer clothes, better walking shoes and a couple flashlights.
I joined a team of about 25 people, who were walking through the fields surrounding the town. This was at about 3:00 am by now. As I walked through the fields, I was thinking about my newborn son, then about the fact that it’s quite unlikely this boy will be found alive. At about the same time that I was celebrating a new life, my second-born son, a father lost his youngest son.
I walked, hardly noticing what people around me were saying to each other, staring into the flash-light lit night, trying desperately to understand why God chooses to take such young lives. I think God revealed to me that, although it is important for us to celebrate life and mourn death, we also must realize that on the other side of eternity life and death will have so little separation, that we won’t even be able to distinguish between the two. This life is but a vapor that is here one moment and gone the next. God’s understanding of life and death is beyond ours, and we can’t assume that just because we think the timing of a boys death is terrible, that God made a mistake.
God gave me a son, a great blessing and a greater responsibility. My job is to take care of him in a way that honors the Lord until He calls him home. The father of the boy who went missing had the same responsibility, and I believe he took that responsibility seriously. The Lord called the boy home sooner than we would have liked, but we must accept death, just as we accept life.
At about 1:00 pm on Saturday, 20 hours after the search began, the boy was found in the man made lake. He had drowned near the dock early Friday evening. May God comfort the family and friends, and as the mourning continues, may God provide the family with an understanding that He was well pleased with the job they did as parents, and He chose to take their son into heaven at just the right time according His plan. I don’t understand it, but I know God’s hand is on that family, just as He had His hand on our family as our son was welcomed into the world.
8. 04.
Just like Eunice, we are all dragons in need of a good skin shedding. We are all selfish and spoiled at times and are in need of Christ’s help to remove that old skin, for we can not remove it ourselves. Our attempts to remove the old are futile and only work backwards.
When we let Jesus remove the old, he will then give us a new life. Once again, only He can provide it, for it is only by Him that we are given a new life. When Christ rose from death, he rose to a completely new life than He had before, and it is this very life that He offers to us as new “skin”. The life we are given is a life that has defeated death and will live for eternity in the fellowship of our Creator, the One who is able to fulfill our greatest needs and desires.
One more thing… we must remember, when we are dealt a bad hand, and must suffer through something miserable, think about how God has the power to turn that miserable thing into an opportunity to shed another dragon layer and become more like who He intends us to be.
3. 04.
In the book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, a spoiled little boy named Eunice is turned into a creature that resembled very much his own character, a dragon. Of course, he is devastated, but over time, he finds uses for becoming a dragon.
Eunice begins to help people. The Dawn Treader is in need of repairs, so Eunice helps with the heavy lifting. Over the next few days, the crew members of the ship notice a change in character. Eunice has gone from a spoiled, whiney little brat, to a helpful dragon.
When the Dawn Treader is once again ready to put to sea, Eunice decided he didn’t want to be a burden to King Caspian and his crew so he slips away into the forest, with the intention of living on the island for the rest of his dragon life. However, Aslan, the Great Lion shows up and guides him to a lake, where Eunice is supposed to take a bath. But first, Eunice must remove his “clothes”.
“But I’m not wearing any clothes,” Eunice thinks to himself. What Aslan wants him to do is shed his outer dragon skin. Eunice does this, but afterwards the skin is still dry and scaly. So, he proceeds to shed another layer, and another. After a few attempts, the skin doesn’t get any better.
Aslan is the One who must shed the skin. Only the Great Lion can completely remove the dragon skin from the boy. So, with His sharp claws, Aslan claws deep into the dragon skin and tears it with great pain to Eunice until there is nothing left but a naked boy. Eunice points out that he is now without clothes. Aslan responds, “I will dress you”.
I have more to say about this story, but for now, let this sink in…
William Knelsen