The Christian Tales
March 19th, 2007 — Nick Shelton
Tragedy Strikes
By Nick SheltonThe Murrah Federal Building entombed hundreds of people when a truck bomb exploded on the morning of April 19, 1995. Within minutes of hearing the news, John Miller sped to the smoldering rubble in Oklahoma City.
“Sir, you cannot go in there,” police told the desperate father.
“It’s my boy,” John shouted. “He’s in there.”“I’m sorry, Sir. Firefighters are doing the best they can.”
Another official added, “There’s electrical fires, asbestos, and a chance of more rubble collapsing. You’d only be endangering your own life.”
However, the officials saw the look in John’s eyes and knew there was no stopping this man. They lifted the yellow tape and said, “Be careful.”
John searched tirelessly for his son. For hours, he pulled back large chunks of concrete calling, “David, David – are you there?”
Twelve hours passed, then twenty-four hours. After thirty-six hours, the chief fireman went up to the father and said, “Sir, your courageous efforts have greatly inspired me and my men. I’m sorry you couldn’t find your boy, but at least you can go home knowing that did everything you could.”
John adamantly replied, “I’m going to keep searching until I see my son one more time – whether he’s alive or dead.”
Thirty-eight hours had passed when finally John heard an answer to one of his calls. Recognizing the voice of his son, John pushed back large pieces of rubble should have taken three men to budge.
When John reached his son, he saw twelve other children trapped underneath slabs of concrete. John embraced his son and led the others to safety.
A reporter heard John and David’s story and asked the seven-year old a few questions. “How was it down there?”
“A lot of my friends were scared and started crying, but I didn’t cry though,” replied David.
“Why was that?” asked the newspaper reporter.
“I knew my Daddy would come for me. He promised that he’d always be there for me.”
In our lives, God searches for you, just like Jon searched for his son. God promises us that He loves us and will always be there for us. Like young David Miller, we should trust our heavenly Father.
Living in this world, we’ll find that we cannot give ourselves everything we need in life – we need God. Living in this world, we will face depression, loneliness, and pain. But if we trust in God, He will take away all these things and replace them with His love.
We must learn that God loves us and “will always be there for us.” He will be there with us during times when the rubble crashes down in our lives, and He will be there during the times when no one seems to care. God will be there in times when we are lost, and He will be there at times when we are burdened with stress. He will always be there – always showing us His love.
Having this love will fully make our lives joyous and complete. It’s amazing – our Father in Heaven loves us even more than John Miller loves his son. It is only when you feel or comprehend this love when you fully understand what it is to be a Christian.
The love of God takes away our sin, gives us a ticket to heaven, fills our lives with joy and happiness, and makes our lives complete – finding this love is the secret to life.
1 John 4:16,17 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
Psalm 33:5 The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Hebrews 13:5b, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
This story comes out of the book The Christian Tales. If you would like to read this book that contains 39 stories like this one, you can click on the “The Christian Tales” title above. Or, if you would like a hard copy or e-copy to save on your computer, you can email Nick at Nick.F.Shelton@gmail.com (I can only mail the free books to those who live in the U.S.)
