I vividly remember hearing the town where I lived in Texas was flooding, while I was deployed to Saudi Arabia. Those were the early days of the internet and e-mail, and I received an e-mail from my daughter saying, “LaVernia is being evacuated because of flooding and I can’t contact Mom.” My daughter didn’t respond to my frantic questions, so I asked a friend to check on my wife. It took him 3 days to finally respond. I was relieved to hear my wife was fine and she wasn’t even aware that part of our town had been evacuated.
Wind and rain wreaked havoc again in Texas this week. I anxiously watched the news from Beijing to see where the affected areas were. My daughter and her family live in that area and the danger was “too close for comfort.” Our part of Texas is rather flat, and it doesn’t take much rain to cause it to flood. I prayed for our loved ones and thought “no news is good news.”
One family was swept down the Blanco River and the young mother called her sister saying “we are floating down the river in the house. Tell Mom and Dad, I love them and pray.” She and her two young children died shortly after that call. In another incident, a student coming home from a school event called her dad to say, “I am stuck in flood waters and the car is tilting!” Her Dad wanted to help her, but the phone went silent, and she died. We can only pray for “peace in the midst of the storm” for the families left behind. After hearing these stories, I e-mailed my daughter and soon got a “we are fine” reply.
The people who died are no longer within our reach, so we need to focus on “saving” the living. In this dangerous world we can’t really save anyone, but JESUS can. We should fear death if we have not accepted JESUS as our Savior, because death is “too close for comfort.” If you have accepted JESUS, then “To live is Christ and to die is gain.” You can put your life in the His hands and let Him decide when you will “gain.” Death won’t be the end, but the beginning of eternal life.
Wayne Lance (2015) – That’s Good News to Share!