Thanks be to God

So I was just watching the video of the first miner being extracted from the mine in Chile and the emotions that overwhelmed me were tremendous. Surprisingly, the first was fear. What if that had been Jeff? How would I have survived that month of living on the edge with my family, not knowing if I would ever see him again but knowing that he was still alive. The next, as I watched the video of his son waiting for the capsule to open, visibly crying and near to collapsing, was joy. I was right there with him. What in the world could EVER cause the same feelings of elation as this little boy must be feeling? Then I was overwhelmed with the amount of thankfulness that must be pumping through that family's brains. Thankful to God over all, for certainly nothing could have happened but for his grace, but also to all of the engineers, the workers, the Chilean President, the fellow families of the other trapped miners, the people all over the world who have been praying for this moment...how can you take that all in? As the wife of the first miner wrapped her arms around her husband I could easily imagine that she could live in that embrace for the rest of her life. I am sure that no moment of her marriage, possibly not even her life up this point, could ever have felt so sweet as that embrace in the midst of all the crowd with the lights and cheers and equipment.  CRIED!! I tell you, the dog had to come in and see what was up. In fact the hiccups are still hanging around. 

Thank you, Lord Father, for such grace as you have bestowed upon these 33 men and their families. Thank you for being with the people who made the rescue happen, the perserverence of the engineers, the support of the governments, the news agencies who kept the world updated, and everyone and everything else that ran and worked behind the scenes to enable this amazing rescue to happen. This was a wonderful shot of positivity and hope in the lives of many. You are truly the one who rescued these men and I thank you, Lord. On behalf of the husbands, wives and children everywhere. Amen.