2001-12-29 - 8:25 a.m.

Daniel

Daniel is gone------------

Yesterday in the late afternoon, Daniel accidentally died. A shoe lace he may have had around his neck was caught in an unfinished doorjam of their large house, and he strangled. His mom and big sister had run down to the bookstore, his dad was in the shop and his little sister and brother, 8 and 9, were outside. They found him when they came back in and cut him down, then tried to find their dad. Mom and sis came home then, and tried to revive him. The coroner said he had been dead long enough by that time that even if the other children had been able to get someone right away, he could not have been revived.

2d and big sister, both 27, had been scheduled to meet at the bowling alley. 2d got the call from sis of the accident and their departure to the hospital. Later that evening, she called with the sad news and 2d went to their house. The 2 girls have been friends for several years, not in each other's pocket close but close enough to buy birthday presents for one another, send emails back and forth and meet occasionally for fun.

Our families have been friends, also, but not very close. We share the same faith, and have attended the same church previously. Now we are closely related by a terrible circumstance. We have lost sons before their time, in freak accidents.

Daniel was 12, loved the Lord and had accepted Him as his own personal Saviour, and grew great vegetables which he and his little sis and brother sold in the summer in a stand outside their house. But is he dead? I think not.

I am a believer and Daniel is a believer and because of our belief, we hear the words of our Saviour. "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die." Daniel has taken that final journey and is proving 'absent from the body is present with the Lord' for those who have been born again.

What did Daniel do to earn this great gift of salvation? Nothing, he had no time to do great sacrificial acts of mercy or kindness, he had no time to perform sincere acts of atonement, or donate vast sums of money to the work of God. He just came as a little child, in childlike faith, to the One Who left the Father in Heaven to die on the cross for Daniel's sin--and mine. Daniel accepted the fact that the death of the sinless One paid in full Daniel's debt to a Holy God. "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Daniel never had the chance to show how closely he would follow this Saviour. But I would imagine he would continue much the same. A sinner saved by grace, with good days and bad days. A sinner with a new nature within him given at his new birth. "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."

I love life, but I envy Daniel and 1s. David the sweet psalmist of Israel described their place right now very well in Psalm 17:15 "But as for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy likeness." They opened their eyes and saw Jesus. And were satisfied.

I have never been satisfied for more than a very short time. There is always another hunger to be filled, another need needed, and on and on whle we live in this flesh. But I have a blessed Hope. Because I believe and have received Jesus as my Saviour, I shall be satisfied one day. "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus."

EE's devotional

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