The Perfect Sunday

Today was Lay Sunday at our church and I filled the pulpit.  It was a great day....I taught Sunday School, we dedicated our new sanctuary piano, sang more songs than usual....all requests....and then I spoke.  I am not going to bore you with the whole sermon....but I do want to share this wonderful story with you since it is Sunday and I spoke on the Faithfulness of God.  I began my time in the pulpit by singing, "Great is Thy Faithfulness" with Beth playing on the new piano...and felt like I was singing at Carnegie Hall.  God really had His hand in today....my message was missing two pages when I got to the end....but it was ok...because where I ended....was perfect.  I began with this story....."In the country of Armenia, in 1988, Samuel and Danielle sent their young son, Armand, off to school. Samuel squatted before his son and looked him in the eye. “Have a good day at school, and remember, no matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” They hugged and the boy ran off to school. Hours later, a powerful earthquake rocked the area. In the midst of the pandemonium, Samuel and Danielle tried to discover what happened to their son but they couldn’t get any information. The radio announced that there were thousands of casualties. Samuel then grabbed his coat and headed for the schoolyard. When he reached the area, what he saw brought tears to his eyes. Armand’s school was a pile of debris. Other parents were standing around crying. Samuel found the place where Armand’s classroom used to be and began pulling a broken beam off the pile of rubble. He then grabbed a rock and put it to the side, and then grabbed another one. One of the parents looking on asked, “What are you doing?” “Digging for my son,” Samuel answered. The man then said, “You’re just going to make things worse! The building is unstable,” and tried to pull Samuel away from his work. Samuel set his jaw and kept working. As time wore on, one by one, the other parents left. Then a firefighter tried to pull Samuel away from the rubble. Samuel looked at him and said, “Won’t you help me?” The firefighter left and Samuel kept digging.  All through the night and into the next day, Samuel continued digging. Parents placed flowers and pictures of their children on the ruins. But, Samuel just kept working. He picked up a beam and pushed it out of the way when he heard a faint cry. “Help! Help!” Samuel listened but didn’t hear anything again. Then he heard a muffled voice, “Papa?”  Samuel began to dig furiously. Finally he could see his son. “Come on out, son!” he said with relief. “No,” Armand said. “Let the other kids come out first because I know you’ll get me.” Child after child emerged until, finally, little Armand appeared. Samuel took him in his arms and Armand said, “I told the other kids not to worry because you told me that you’d always be there for me!”  Fourteen children were saved that day because one father was faithful."  You know....if that one earthly, human father was that faithful....how much more can we expect from our heavenly Father.  Great is His Faithfulness!  Hope your Sunday was awesome....I know mine was!  God Bless you all real good!