We’re watching a 60 minutes show on the migration of the wildebeests across the Mara River…huge crocodiles 15 feet long grab an enormous, healthy and strong wildebeest by the horns and four other crocs join to drown the huge beast. The five crocs will now not have to eat for months. In the meantime, the hundreds of other waiting wildebeests use their sacrificed friend as a diversion for safe passage across the river. Always a difficult thing to watch.
Yes, we are still here in Colorado. It has been survival of the fittest in another sense for us. Can our marriage last through the stress of months of waiting? Can our pocketbook last through the delay? Can our delight and joy of serving men and women in the military survive this long process? Or will the huge, hungry crocodiles of doubt, frustration, and exasperation pull us down and apart?
Praise the Lord for His kindness to us…even when we are being tossed by these looming crocodiles. He has provided for us in every way from our marriage to finances to excitement for our future. We have been able to see family, even our new member who is becoming a long legged, very active little girl! We have been able to visit friends that we would have missed if we had left early. We were even able to spend Christmas with family instead of a motel in a foreign land. He has given us time as a couple to encourage one another and share how we can help each other in the midst of this trial.
We were also reminded today of another sacrifice that happened over 2000 years ago which allowed not just hundreds, but millions to cross the river of death to eternal life. The crocodile of death no longer has a hold on us. We can never be drowned or torn apart by sin. Jesus sacrificed His perfect, humble, life so that we can have forgiveness of our sins and everlasting life forever with our Lord. The horror of seeing those crocs attack the wildebeest is nothing to what Christ experienced for us on that cross. Our sacrifice was born to die. But unlike those crocs who benefited only for a month, He conquered death for eternity. Our survival is because of His fitness. Merry Christmas!