When I was expecting our oldest son Sam twenty-three years ago, I gave him to the Lord, every bit as much as Hannah in the Bible gave her Samuel, except that I did not give mine away to a priest. Hannah's was a unique situation that God redeemed. I told God that I could not give my baby away, that I was willing to be the one to raise him and train him for the Lord rather than expecting someone else to raise him.
I was willing for my son to go into the ministry and hoped and prayed that he would.
And he did.
It was just a different kind of ministry. It turned out to be a very real, very practical, and sometimes very grueling ministry. It is a ministry that meets people in some of the worst and most awful times of their lives.
As a volunteer fireman and EMT, he has been called to everything from rescuing a dog in a crawl space to suicide threats to diabetics who have fallen and can't get up on their own, to fatal wrecks.
There were five wrecks in less than 24 hours a little over two weeks ago, on a day that our family was away. Two of the wrecks were fatal. Sam was on scene where one driver had died, another was life-flighted, and another passenger refused treatment, waiting for a friend to take him to the hospital.
Sam was on scene again the very next evening after a car went out of control on the snowy roads, resulting in the death of a child. Sam was one of three who tried to save the child's life, to no avail.
We were in this cabin near Gatlinburg, TN, just after the last service, when we got Sam's call.
About the time of the accident, we had been in a service where a Spanish Pastor, with his daughter as translator, exhorted us all not to fear what was going to happen ahead of us. He urged us to know that God has his angels all around us and will deliver us from all evil even if he chooses not to deliver us from death or suffering. The Stetler trio had just sung a beautiful medley of songs about heaven. This medley was all the more touching since the pianist and singer, Paul Stetler, had only recently lost his new bride in a terrible accident.
"Just think of walking on shore, and finding it heaven!
Of touching a hand--and finding it God's!
Of breathing new air, and finding it celestial!
Of waking up in glory, and finding it Home!"
As they were singing that, I could almost feel the hand of God reaching down! How little did I know that truly it was reaching down--and taking to a Much Better Place a young child on a snowy road in Colorado only a few miles from where we live.
How little did I know that my son was involved in trying to save this child's life--but couldn't.
And how little did I know that only a few hundred feet or yards away from both accidents was another mother of a first responder, another mother who knew me and my son. As soon as she saw the first wreck, she began to pray for the responders, naming our son Sam by name! To think that God let that accident happen right in front of the home of Christian who would immediately begin to pray!
Yes, deep in my heart, I wanted my first boy to go into the ministry. And he did. Now I am part of that group of mothers who pray for their own son or daughter--and those of others, too--as they work in this noble ministry of being first responders in times of trouble.
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