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December 18, 2007
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
I Did It for You!, by Rubel Shelly
James and Kati Kim left San Francisco to travel to Seattle for
Thanksgiving last year. With the holiday over, they started home. There
was to be a night at an expensive lodge on November 25. But, they
missed their turnoff from Interstate 5, and after checking a roadmap,
they decided to get off and travel a secondary road to their
destination at Gold Beach, Oregon.
With their daughters, four-year-old Penelope and seven-month-old
Sabine, they drove for about a dozen miles. Then, in what would prove
to be a terrible mistake, they took a fork to the right and started
down the road where they would soon be stranded. Because of the danger
of that route during winter, there is a locked metal gate to keep
people from going that way. It was secured against traffic November 1,
but a vandal had cut the lock and done away with the barrier!
This is how this precious family of four came to be stranded in rugged
territory. They couldn't get a cell phone signal. All they could do was
try to survive until either they could figure a way out of the remote
area or search teams could find them.
Dwindling gasoline meant they could warm their car only occasionally.
They found some wood to burn and then burned their car tires. When they
exhausted their baby food and bottled water, they melted snow. Kati
nursed the two girls. Stranded for more than a week now, James knew he
had to do something. On Saturday, December 2, 2006, he started out on
foot in the direction he and Kati believed the nearest help could be
found. He walked for more than ten miles in the snow before dying of
exposure and hypothermia.
It was so perilous a mission that it cost him his life.
Searchers found and saved James' wife and daughters on Monday, December
4. His body was found two days later. There would be no fairy-tale
ending to the story. People around the world have grieved with the
35-year-old man's family. Our hearts go out to Kati, Penelope, and
Sabine.
This story is a moving testimony to one man's love for his family. For
many Christians, it is yet another metaphor for the mission of the one
whose birth we celebrate in the Christmas season. In a world that
headlines crime and abuse, terrorism and violence, indifference and
turning away, James' actions show us that real love still exists. Great
sacrifices are still made. Humans created in God's very image are
capable of imitating his own self-giving love.
James Kim's desperate attempt to save those precious to him is a
testimony to one man's love for his family. As one person put it, he
leaves them this legacy: "I did it for you!"
If you're struggling to find your way, Jesus has been trying to get
through to you since Bethlehem. It was so perilous a mission that it
cost him his life. Yet the gospel message, from the manger to the
cross, is God's way of saying, "I did it for you!"
---------
(c) 2007 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life"
printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for previous issues of
the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* Finding Joy in Sacrifice
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200407/20040730_joysacrifice.html
* The Weather When Jesus Came
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/199912/19991215_weather.html
* Stranded Father's Last Heroic Hours
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/07/MNGH6MR3191.DTL
* RubelShelly.com
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200712/20071218_foryou.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
SEE THE MORNING, by Chris Tomlin
Award-winning artist Tomlin offers a whole new set of soul-inspiring
easy-to-sing songs about God's faithfulness.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?260
Find more great books, CDs and videos at the Heartlight store! With
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