As a teenager held in a World War II Japanese prison camp in China, Margaret
Holder felt the almost unbearable pain of forced separation from her family.
But as the war progressed, American planes dropped barrels of food and
supplies. When my wife and I spoke to her forty-five years later, Margaret
recalled with delight “care packages falling from the sky.”
One day an American plane flew low and dropped more of those wonderful food
barrels. But as the barrels neared the ground, the captives realized
something had changed. Her eyes bright, Margaret told us, “This time the
barrels had legs!” The sky rained American soldiers, parachuting down to
rescue them. Margaret and several hundred children rushed out of the camp
past the Japanese guards, who offered no resistance. Free for the first
time in six years, they ran to the soldiers, hugging and kissing them.
Yes, I know those six years of confinement and separation from family caused
great suffering for that young girl and her family. But I also know what I
saw in the eyes and heard in the voice of Margaret Holder almost half a
century later. She exuded sheer joy, a joy that she simply never would have
known WITHOUT the suffering that preceded it.
In the sixty-five years since their dramatic rescue from the prison camp,
most of those children have died. Those who loved Jesus are now with Him.
Just imagine their joy when they saw the RESCUER of their SOULS! Just
imagine their joy in being reunited yet again with their parents and some of
their soldier rescuers! And THIS time the reunion will never end. This
time they will all live with JESUS, the source of all joy.
If the soldiers rejoiced in rescuing those children, think how GOD rejoices
in rescuing us! Whether he returns in the sky to liberate us, or draws us
to Himself through our deaths, He will indeed rescue us and unite us with
Him AND our loved ones who know Him. He’ll liberate us from a world under
the Curse and take us HOME to Heaven, where evil and suffering can never
touch us, His beloved children, again!
(From “The Goodness of God” by Randy Alcorn)
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.net
“Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!”