While my family was on vacation last week I had a chance to read Jungle Pilot, a biography about Nate Saint, a martyred missionary to Ecuador. More than once I had to stop, find a pen, and underline. What a remarkable man!
Nate Saint was a pilot and a mechanic and worked and lived in the jungles of Ecuador. He recounted one time that he experienced a plane crash and he said this in a letter back home about it:
I can't remember a thing after seeing the ground right in front of us - coming fast. I don't recall any particular fear at that moment, nor since, as we've talked and hashed over the whole business. This, I believe, is the result of the deep assurance we have in our hearts that Satan himself cannot stop us, nor sign our death certificate, without the permission of God Almighty...I am deeply convinced that we live moment by moment by his tender mercies because he has a a job for us to do ere we see Him face to face. I see no reason to expect that our homecoming should be dramatic, since it is not determined by dangerous nor dramatic circumstances but by the will of God.
What a powerful reminder that all death is, is a calling by God to come home, when He decides! I mulled over this all day. I couldn't get it out of my head really. I even read it to the kids while we were driving to some beach. While death is hard for us here, for those who know Jesus, there could be no greater gift than entering into the Holy presence of our God.
That same day, we lost someone in our school community to cancer.
I do not count it a coincidence that God gave me these words at this time, for the gift of passing it on to others who grieve.
"Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace!" Nahum 1:15
Thank you God, for bringing me this good news.
