Emphasis Preaching Journal

Suppose your child were the child in this story. Suppose you had been sitting by the bedside, applying cold compresses, giving medicine, watching your child get weaker and weaker. Suppose you at last realized that this was more than just a simple flu, that your child was beginning to weaken, and breathing was becoming a problem. You would, of course, delay in calling an ambulance, for fear that you were panicking soon and everyone would think you were foolish, hysterical. But at last you pick up the phone and dial 911, shaking and feeling uncertain. You would stand at the door, watching for the ambulance, until it arrived, and you would take the EMTs to your child's room. To your horror, you see that your child has stopped breathing! The EMTs quickly push you out of the room, and someone stands in the hallway with you while those in the bedroom begin to work on your child's breathing. You can hear them yelling at him, and someone hits him in the chest, and one of the men pulls back his head and begins breathing for him while another calls the hospital. Do you suppose they would try only once to get your son to breathe? And if your daughter failed to respond a second time, do you think they would stop trying? Or would they, like Elijah, try everything they knew, and they try it all again and a third time, at least, in order to accomplish the miracle of bringing your child back from death? And do you suppose that you, as the parent, would just stand there and do nothing? Or would you cry out to God, not just once, but again and again, until your child breathed again or was pronounced dead and gone? -- Herrmann