Do You Feel Alone and Desperate?

2 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)

And, “I will be a Father to you,

    and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

March 26, 2009: Tassia was only 9 months when he was found, very weak and thin, wandering around alone. He had been an innocent bystander as poachers had killed his mother for her ivory. Now he was doomed to die, alone and desperate.

April 17, 2009: Bhaawa,a five month old baby, was found in despair, bogged down in the mud of a drying waterhole in the Kirisia Hills near Maralal in Northern Kenya. He was suffering from shock and grief.

Were it not for the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, these orphan elephants would have died.

Sheldrick began doing these kinds of rescue missions in 1952, and not only did he rescue orphan elephants, but orphan rhinoceros as well. Though he passed away in 1977, his wife continued his dream, and as a result, more than 100 elephant orphans, as well as numerous rhino orphans, have been saved. All of these elephants and rhinos were raised by the Trust and gradually rehabilitated back to communities in Tsavo National Park.

To a baby elephant, his mother and extended family are of utmost importance. Without them he is completely lost and vulnerable, both physically, and psychologically.

When an elephant baby is found alone, these ties have to somehow be re-established through humans. Elephant keepers remain with these orphan babies 24 hours a day, travelling as a group during the day, and sleeping next to them at night. Different keepers sleep with different cubs every night, so that strong attachments to one person can be prevented. As elephants are highly tactile and sociable animals, great care is given to shower them with love and acceptance.

Initially, feeding is a 24 hour job, but bit by bit the elephant babies are weaned onto a 3 hour feeding routine. When they reach one year of age, they are transferred to Tsavo National Park and absorbed back into older elephant families. In this way, they can begin their gradual integration back into the wild. This transition is made easier by the fact that elephants are highly sociable and that they are automatically fond of their young.

Elephants also have a remarkable memory. They are often able to recognize people who cared for them, even after more than 37 years. This happened to Eleanor, age 42, when she recognized the one who had been her keeper when she was just 5 years old!

None of these elephants would have ever been able to survive if it hadn't been for these keepers who devoted their life in saving them. I am sure if elephants could applaud, they sure would cheer their human rescuers! Hurray!

We too were doomed for a solitary life with no hope in sight. As we wandered into forbidden territory, we became lost and entwined by the vicious snare called sin, and we, too, became orphans from our Heavenly Father, "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." (Rom 3:10-12 NIV)

Someone did reach out to us, however, offering us eternity with Him: "Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master." (Rom 6:23 The Message)

We don't need to wander around as orphans any longer. We can be adopted by the Most High God, and thus experience His immeasurable love for each one of us: "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor 6:18 NIV)

All we need to do to have such a wonderful gift is to stop running away from God! We need to accept His offer. We need to welcome Him, as well as His adoption, into our lives.

Are you lost and desperate? There is hope. Come to the One who will never turn you down. Experience His love for you.

Dear Lord, Thank you for rescuing us when we were totally lost and desperate! Thank you for bringing us home and allowing us to experience Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

When We Are Suffering We Are Not Alone.

Isaiah 43:2 (NVI)

When you pass through the waters,

    I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

    they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

    you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

For many years Robert Manry held the record for piloting the smallest ship ever to sail the Atlantic Ocean.

The trip aboard his boat, the "Tinkerbelle," had difficulties you and I couldn't imagine. For example, because he was afraid of being run over, Manry did not dare to sleep when his craft was in the shipping lanes. The rudder of his vessel broke several times. He was often washed overboard, saved only by the rope he had tied between himself and his 13-foot vessel.

After 78 days at sea, Manry sighted land at Falmouth, England.

Two months at sea had left him with only this desire: he wanted to tie up his boat, find a hotel room, and get some sleep. The enthusiastic crowd that welcomed him had other ideas. A fleet of about 300 boats, all blowing their horns in salute, came out to greet him.

Forty thousand well-wishers lined the docks, cheering him in. Manry had sailed alone, had suffered at sea alone, but he received a hero's welcome!

Of course, Manry is not alone in suffering. Others, like Manry, have also suffered to complete their goals. Like Manry, most of them have been congratulated for their accomplishments.

But that was not the way it was for Jesus. When He died, there were no crowds cheering Him on. The only shouts were people rejoicing over His pain. For Jesus, there was no hotel room where He could rest. There would only be the dark, borrowed tomb.

When He rose from the dead, there would be no crowd of 40,000 well-wishers to acknowledge the event. As He suffered for humankind, He tasted the rejection of the very people He had come to rescue. Fulfilling the Father's plan of salvation for all who would believe in Him was a lonely one.

We need to realize Jesus' life, death and resurrection -- which won our salvation -- was not something He had to do. Nor was it something we had earned. Jesus' sacrifice was birthed out of God's goodness, greatness and grace.

Back then, Jesus' life was lonely. It shouldn't be the same today. Today you, and I, and all Christians ought to spend our lifetimes thanking Jesus for having endured rejection without objection, for having done all that was needed so we could be saved.

Dear Lord, thanks You that because You are with us, we are never alone. We give thanks for Your presence in our life now and Your blood-bought salvation for our eternity. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

You are Not Alone

Matthew 28:20 (NIV)

And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

In 1983, Belgian Rom Houben, engineering student and martial arts enthusiast, was in a terrible accident.

It was an accident that left Rom comatose and vegetative state.

Days, months, years, decades passed. Wars were fought; governments changed; technology advanced. Many things were transformed, but for comatose Rom Houben there was no change to his sad and altogether hopeless condition.

Then one day Dr. Steven Laureys of the University of Liege hooked Houben up to some modern, state-of-the-art, brain-scanning equipment.

Dr. Laureys turned on the machinery, and the bells and whistles of his devices lit up like the Fourth of July. The equipment said that Houben was, in fact, not a vegetable; it said he had normal brain function.

It was true. For 23 years, totally helpless, unable to communicate, Houben had heard everything said about him. Houben heard when people talked about him as if were already dead. He also noted how, as the years passed by, his friends gradually stopped coming by.

Rom Houben could understand. After all, everybody had been told he didn't know if they were there or not.

As I read Houben's story, I wondered how lonely, how very lonely he must have felt.

What better place to turn then to the Bible. Thinking about all the Bible passages which might have been a help to him.

"Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!" (Psalm 130:1-2 ). And, of course, from the book of Romans, there are these classic two verses: "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8:38-39).

What great verses for each of to memorize.  At some time or another, sooner or later, almost every one of us will feel alone. We may not be in the hospital, and we may not have been diagnosed as brain dead, but we will feel we are alone -- very much alone.

Always remember that we are never alone, God is with us.

Dear Lord, Thank You for coming to seek and save the lost, for healing the sick, for being a friend to those who are isolated. May we always remember You are with us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.