This is an old story I enjoy telling. This story could be classified as an allegory I suppose. For many of us the story fits our lives more often than it misses. Risk taking is not something we humans are programmed for. Either is examining our beliefs. This story is about risk taking, belief. Sometime we have to be aware enough to know it is time to take the hand that is offered us.
There was small town somewhere below one of the great dams, levees, or next to a river. One day it started to rain, the dam was giving way, or the levee was overran. The town started to flood.
The first emergency response was the town sheriff who drove around the town, announcing on his loud speaker that the town was going to flood soon, and everyone needed to pack up and move to somewhere out of the flood zone. There was a man living in one of the houses, who was reading his paper at the time, and when he heard the PA announcement to evacuate, he thought to himself, “The Lord will provide.”
Of course the water came into the town, and soon was at the door of the man’s house. The National Guard had been called out by this time to both help the folks evacuate, and to protect the town. When a truck drove up to help the man gather his important belongings and leave his home, the man refused saying, “The Lord will provide.”
Shortly thereafter the water was in the house. The water was muddy, knee deep and rising quickly. The man took refuge in his belief, and moved his most important belongings to an upstairs room. He said to himself as muddy water filled the ground level rooms, “The Lord will provide.”
At this time a federal government agency arrived in town to help. A few men in a boat thought they saw movement in an upstairs window of a house. It was the man moving his now meager possessions to the roof. They motored over to the house and told the man they were there to take him to safety. The man refused, steadfast in his belief saying simply, “The Lord will provide.”
As the man sat on his roof the water was rising higher and moving faster. The man could feel the pull of the water on the frame of his house. It was starting to groan slightly from the pressure of the water. A helicopter news team was in the area, filming the flood, and spotted the man on the roof. They could not understand how the man was missed by the previous rescue teams. They stopped filming, and flew over the house were the man sat on the roof. One of the men holding on with one hand, hung out the door of the helicopter and reached out with his other hand to the man to take hold of. The man sat where he was and waved off the helicopter. He said to them and himself, “The Lord will provide.”
The house started to groan loudly and twist. The opposite corner was torn away from the house and floated away in the torrent. As the man watched in horror as his house was breaking apart, a tree which had been uprooted, hit the house and stilled for a few minutes before floating away with the current. With a mighty groan, the house shuddered one last time and broke apart. The man was thrown into the muddy flotsam filled water and drowned.
Suddenly he was standing before the throne of God, awestruck in what he saw before him. God looked down and asked the man why he was there? The man was not sure, but then realized he had drowned, and he became angry with God for letting him drown when his belief was so strong that nothing could shake it.
God looked at the man standing there and asked the man this question. “I sent the sheriff to your house, I sent the National Guard, I led two men in a boat to you. I made sure men in a helicopter saw you, and tried to rescue you. I sent you a tree to hang on to as your house was swept away so you would survive the flooding. What else did you expect me to provide?”
No comments yet.