Dear Friends,

I WROTE THIS DEVOTIONAL FOR THE MID-ATLANTIC DISTRICT OF FOURSQUARE CHURCHES AND DECIDED TO PASS IT ALONG HERE.  :-)

-Tim

I checked the answering machine when we arrived home at 9:00pm.  It was Charlie’s mom speaking in a hopeful tone betrayed by fear.  “Mr. or Mrs. May,…Charlie never came home this afternoon when he got off the bus.  If you’ve seen him or know where he is, will you please call me?”

Charlie had been at our house that afternoon playing with my youngest son.  He’d even eaten dinner with us.  I’d sent him home afterward as we were preparing to attend a band concert at the local high school.

No one in our family had seen Charlie in three hours.  His mother hadn’t seen him since  that morning.  It was dark out, Charlie was 10 years old, and nobody knew where he was.  My heart began to fill with the fear Charlie’s mom was feeling.  My stomach began to churn.

After a quick prayer with my family, I grabbed the keys and headed out to look.  Within a few minutes, there were half a dozen vehicles driving the surrounding roads and neighborhoods in search of Charlie.  The police were called.  Older teens on bicycles began looking.  Men with flashlights started searching a local wooded area.

An hour later the search ended as swiftly as it began.  Charlie, still carrying his school backpack, was spotted walking down a road a quarter mile from his home.  A deputy sheriff picked him up and returned him to his grateful, and greatly relieved, mother.

Charlie’s mom called to tell me he’d been found while I was making my third trip through the neighborhoods near his house.  As I hung up the phone, my heart sank, and I began to weep.  “Thank you, Father.  Thank you for bringing this boy back home.  Thank you for a night of rejoicing instead of a night of tragedy.  You are so good.  You are faithful…”

I wiped my eyes as I pulled into my driveway and thought about how the Father must have felt sending Jesus to earth.  He placed His Son in Mary’s womb knowing his life would hold certain tragedy.  The Father sent Jesus while fully aware of the cruel death inescapably awaiting Him at the cross.

How did that feel?  What pain does God experience sending His Son as “Immanuel” and the “Prince of Peace” knowing all along that upon Him would be laid “the iniquity of us all”? (Isaiah 7, 9, 53)  It would be like searching for a child knowing all the while that the worst “will” – not “might” – happen.

The pain the Father suffered is beyond my imagination; yet, I find my heart over and over turning to Him in gratitude.  God’s unselfish love is breathtaking.  His mercy leaves me speechless.

As we celebrate Jesus’ coming, let’s invite the Holy Spirit to make us more aware than ever of the price our Father was willing to pay…for us.  “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”  (John 3:16 The Message)  God sent Jesus so we could “get home safely.”

Merry Christmas,

Tim May

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