1 John 4:17 "By this is love perfected with us, so
that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also
are we in this world."
If you've ever ridden on a roller-coaster, you'll
remember that moment when you reach the top and then, almost instantaneously the
bottom drops out, you go airborne, and your stomach is in your throat. Under the
closed conditions of a roller-coaster, that can be pretty exciting.
But it's not so much fun if it happens unexpectedly
and you're in an airplane.
That's what happened to the folks on Indonesia's
AirAsia Flight QZ535. While traveling from Australia to Bali, their plane
suddenly lost air pressure. The passengers' oxygen masks dropped down as the
plane, very quickly, took a 24,000-foot drop in altitude. That's a
roller-coaster, gut-wrenching drop of more than four miles in about nine
minutes.
Now I would love to tell you that the crew on the
flight managed to bring calm to the troubled passengers. I would love to tell
you that, but I can't. Nobody can.
The people on the flight report the staff was,
screaming, crying, and looked shocked. One of them ran down the aisle yelling,
"Emergency! Brace! Crash positions!"
Now, please don't think that everyone lost it and
became unglued. Chris Jeanes was a passenger who had planned to propose to his
girlfriend, Casey, when they got to Bali. But since it looked like they might
not make it to Bali, he proposed as the plane was doing its nosedive.
Casey said, "Yes!"
And for those of you who have a questioning bent of
mind, I can tell you, when they were out of danger, Jeanes proposed a second
time, and Casey still said "Yes!"
So, my friends, what have we learned from this AirAsia
flight?
Hearing the reports and watching the video of what
happened, I came away with this:
Some people are ready to die.
Some people are not ready to die.
In this particular case, the folks whom I would expect
might be ready, that is the plane's staff, didn't seem to have been prepared at
all. At the same time, other folks, like the lovebirds Chris and Casey were calm
enough to move forward with their plans. If their time together was going to be
short, they were determined to enjoy it as much as they could.
In some ways, they remind me of Luther who once was
asked, "What would you do if you knew you had only 24 hours before judgment?"
Luther supposedly said, "I'd keep planting this tree."
Luther knew that when a person has been washed of his
sins in the Savior's precious blood, no longer can he be accused when he stands
before the divine Judge's bench. Because the Christ has fulfilled the Law and
died our death, on that day the only verdict we shall hear is one which says,
"Not guilty!"
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I am a miserable sinner but
because of Jesus I am a forgiven sinner. May I rejoice in the salvation He has
given and do all I can to reach out to others who still wander in the darkness
where fear rules hearts and minds. This I ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus Lutheran Hour Ministries All rights reserved; not to be duplicated without permission.
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