Sunday, March 31, 2002
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Sunday, March 31, 2002 |
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Do you care? By DR. KNOX HERNDON
As I have stated before, my father was in the military for over 20 years so we as a military family traveled around the world as he served soldiers and their families as an Army chaplain. In those days, it was customary to travel across the ocean by ship. In fact when we were assigned to Panama in 1953-1956, we traveled for seven days, to and from Panama, stopping in at Puerto Rico, on a ship. Then when we returned from Germany in 1966, you were allowed to utilize the money the government would use to fly your family home to the States and apply it on tickets aboard the "United States," a luxury liner. We had a family meeting and all agreed to take the ship and pay the difference. When the ship departs New York Harbor and all the relatives left behind are waving and crying and the band is playing "Auld Lang Syne" that will bring a tear to the hardest of hearts. Then when it returns to the same harbor you shed tears of joy. Both are definitely "Kleenex" events. The following story was provided to me by Jeffery Green, serving in Korea for your freedoms and mine. Thank you, Jeff. Is the greatest sacrifice laying your own life down, or is there something far greater? Back in the days of the Great Depression, a Missouri man named John Griffith was the controller of a railroad drawbridge across the Mississippi River. One summer day in 1937 he took his eight-year-old son, Greg, to work with him. At noon, Griffith put the bridge up to let ships pass and sat down with Greg to eat lunch on the observation deck. Suddenly a train whistle shrieked in the distance. The Memphis Express, with four hundred passengers on board, was approaching the raised bridge! Griffith ran back to the control tower. Before throwing the master lever he glanced down for any passing ships and saw something that made his heart stop. His son, Greg, had slipped from the observation deck and had fallen into the massive gears that operate the bridge. His left leg was caught in the gear cogs. Knowing what he had to do, Griffith buried his head in his left arm and pushed the master switch forward. The massive bridge lowered into place just as the Memphis Express roared safely over the river. No one on the train looked at the control house or saw his son's broken body in the massive gearbox below. In agony, Griffith screamed at the passing train, "I sacrificed my son for you people! Don't you care?!" But the train was gone and no one heard. Easter celebrates the fact that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, NLT) Through His Son's death, God has demonstrated his love. The only question remaining is, "Do you care?" Care we must, on the home front, in our spiritual lives, and for our military for their daily sacrifice. The Rev. Dr. Knox Herndon is pastor of His House Community Church (SBC). The Rev. Greg Mausz is senior associate pastor. The Rev. Dr. Lydia Herndon is the Sunday School superintendent, Bible study coordinator and teacher. The church is just below Fayetteville, on Ga. Highway 85, a mile south of Ga. Highway 16, just below the fire station. Visitors welcome. Church office and prayer line 770-719-2365; e-mail KHERN2365@aol.com.
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