this devotion means so much to me - i pray it moves you as well...

Rescue in Process: Hold On!,
by Rubel Shelly

Thirty-three Chilean miners are telling an unlikely story. After being
trapped half a mile underground for 69 wretched days, they were brought
to the surface one at a time in a cigar-shaped steel capsule that was
only slightly larger in diameter than a grown man's shoulders are wide.

In a rescue process that combined the efforts of the Chilean
government, NASA, a Pennsylvania drill company, and so many others, an
ahead-of-schedule operation brought the men out in a flawless rescue
operation. Each took the 15-minute journey to freedom from the longest
underground entrapment in history.

From the pre-commercialized reports that have emerged so far, it seems
clear that there was an early time of extreme fear and deep
discouragement. In the first 17 days, the men huddled in an area no
larger than 165 square feet. They had no contact with the outside and
knew nothing of what was being done above ground to rescue them.

Reports say that some of the younger men in the group threw themselves
on the ground and refused to get up. They appear to have resigned
themselves to death. Then the first bore hole penetrated their tiny
space, and hope soared. Bodies that had started eating muscle were
provided with food, and tainted mine water was replaced with pure
drinking water. Things improved dramatically.

But there was still a long wait to be endured. Even with good food and
water, what about the emotional health of the group?

The men organized to live. Everyone was assigned a job. Nobody was
allowed to isolate himself with his fears. One report of the experience
I read contained this sentence: "They functioned like a family -- a mix
of love, dependence, frustration. But there were never thoughts of
turning on each other."

As we wait, never doubt that heaven is furiously active on your behalf.

Then I thought this: What a microcosm of heaven, earth, and church! And
how much we could learn from the experience.

The "rescue work" we call salvation is going on above. No more than the
miners could know what was happening a half-mile above them, we cannot
know all God is doing for us in our times of weakness, failure, and
discouragement. We know of the cross in history, and we have the
promise we will never be forsaken.

The "holding-on work" we do as the church is our task while trapped in
the dark and threatening environment of a world where sin has done its
best to trap and destroy us. No, we can't climb out under our own
strength. We wait instead with all the patience we can muster, keep
hope alive, and trust the promise. Refusing to turn on each other, we
encourage one another daily to keep the faith.

As we wait, never doubt that heaven is furiously active on your behalf.

The beautiful words that Zechariah spoke over his son, John the
Baptizer, are as real for us today as they were then:

"For you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to
give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness
of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the
rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the
path of peace" (Luke 1:76-79).