THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

BANG!  An explosion shattered the hot Colombian afternoon.

“What was that?”  Stan, the American reporter, looked around the schoolyard where he and his cameraman, John, were filming a free clinic put on by local doctors.

“Let’s find out! It could be a great story!”  Grabbing his camera, John started to run towards the sound of the blast.

Cautiously climbing onto the roof of a utility shed, the two journalists peered over the edge of the high cement wall.  There below, in the middle of a gathering crowd, was a body lying motionless on the street.

As John’s camera filmed the scene of the explosion, the coordinator for the medical clinic got Stan’s attention, “Did you know that grenade was meant for you?”

The Sacrifice of One for Many

Slowly the story came out.  Rebel guerrillas heard there was an American TV crew filming the clinic.  Accosting a construction worker in the street, the guerrillas tried to force him to throw a hand-grenade over the wall of the schoolyard.  The worker refused, knowing there were children inside.  There was a bit of a scuffle and eventually the grenade went off, killing the construction worker as the guerrillas made their escape.  The sacrifice of one unknown man saved many lives that day in Colombia.

Back in the U.S. after the trip, Stan and his wife ran into a friend while having coffee one day.  “I was praying today,” she told them, “and the Lord gave me this verse for Stan.”

Isaiah 43:4 “Because you are precious to me, because I give you honor and love you, I will give other people in your place.  I will give other nations to save your life.”

That American reporter was my dad.  Though I was only eleven years old at the time, I was deeply impacted by how God had spared my dad’s life so dramatically.  What an amazing picture of our Father’s love for you and me.  His Son died in your place, so that you could live.  You are precious in His sight!

Going vertical!

MJ