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When The Bottom Falls Out
A teenage girl was walking on a sidewalk in Xi'an, the capital of China's northwest Shaanxi Province, talking on a cell phone, minding her own business--and fell through the sidewalk. She didn't stop falling until she hit the bottom eighteen feet below.
It happened March 25, 2012. The incident was captured on a surveillance camera and replayed over and over on television. The video also recorded a passing cab driver stopping to help her.
But since the cabby couldn’t reach her, he jumped in the hole himself to stay with her–a perfect stranger–and comfort her until firefighters arrived with a ladder. She had a few bumps and bruises, but otherwise was okay. Local media reported the road surface in the area had been eroded by underground water.
So what do you do when the bottom falls out from under you? The slender girl wasn’t doing anything wrong, wasn't jumping up and down on the sidewalk, and didn’t do anything to deserve what happened to her. It was a normal day for her—until the bottom fell out.
Often in our own lives we may be hit with circumstances so it feels that the bottom has literally fallen out of our lives. We're doing everything just the way we're supposed to, minding our own business, trying to live a good life and be kind to others. We attend worship regularly, pray, read our Bibles, give generously, and even tell a few friends about our faith in Christ--all the things a "good" Christian is supposed to do.
But even with all that, sometimes the bottom falls out from under us anyway.
Thank God for those who run to our aid! Thank God for friends and family who jump down in the hole with us to comfort us until the situation improves, the wounds heal or some other type of help arrives.
But it also happens that sometimes we're the cab driver. Sometimes God puts someone in our path who needs some comfort and assurance, someone to pray with them and hold their hand. Will you be the one who gets involved, the one who runs to the aid of others? Perhaps you are the one who should jump down into the hole with someone else, providing comfort and strength and whatever assistance you are able.
That's the point Paul was trying to make in 2 Corinthians. God comforts us so we can provide that same comfort to others who are in need of it. As we move through our days let's keep our eyes open for those who need our help--even if they're perfect strangers.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, NIV).
--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com
