Literature
Short Extracts
Children of the Highest
by Hannah Hurnard
"lt was Christmas Eve, 1969, in the Holy Land, and as I prepared to
drive down the mountain-side from my little home overlooking the Sea of
Galilee and the Jordan Valley, I could plainly hear, as I had been able
to do for most of the afternoon, the sound of exploding shells and
bombs, the rattle of anti-aircraft fire and the high drone of planes.
Day after day, and night after night, these sounds along the frontier
had become so habitual that I was tempted to take them for granted, and,
simply because the shells did not land near to the tiny village in which
I lived, to continue going calmly about my work without picturing what
it was like for the human beings and beasts where the bombs were falling
and the fighting taking place.
But we know that our Father in Heaven can never take such things for
granted, nor refuse to be conscious of what it is like to be right there
in the midst of the suffering caused by human beings attacking and
killing each other. We are told that, "In all the afflictions of His
Creatures," "He is afflicted and the Angel of His Presence" is always
"seeking to save them." Then , surely, no one who longs to become what
Jesus so beautifully called "THE CHILDREN OF THE HIGHEST" can refuse to
share with their Father in this ministry of feeling with the sufferings
of His fallen creatures and in seeking to save and succour them.
"...The wrong things in this world which so greatly need to be
changed and put right, must first be changed in us as
individuals, and the only real substitute for destructive force is our
own absolute refusal, as individuals, to use it in any form ourselves.
The only way to cause bloodshedding to cease in the world, is to refuse
to take any part in it ourselves, or in causing others to shed blood so
that we can join in using, in some form, what has been put to death. For
wars and bloodshed will never cease until human beings are willing to
cease from shedding the blood of other creatures in order to obtain what
they want by that means, and to lay aside destructive force altogether,
in order to become followers of the HOLY, HARMLESS LAMB OF GOD."
Originally published and distributed gratis by the Bible Lands
Society: http://www.biblelands.org.uk/
Return to Literature
