A FRIEND IN THE DARK

      Abraham Lincoln, we all know, was killed at the height of his presidential career. The Civil War was over, for all intents and purposes, though a few skirmishes continued to erupt.

      He had gone to Ford’s Theater with the thought of recreation and the sweet relief that only major success brings to a man. The import of that night would be anything but what he expected a few hours earlier.

     And almost a century and a half later we know the rest of the story.

     A dear, sensitive, but fiercely determined man would die as the day broke over Washington. He had been taken to an apartment across the way from the theater, and laid diagonally across a bed due to his tall frame. People milled in and out of the room, but one man remained throughout the night; griping the president's hand.

    As I write these words, I never heard the man identified, but his identity is not all that important. What he did was crucial.

    For as the president lay there, he sat by his side, ever holding his hand. At one point one of the cabinet secretaries asked the man, “Why do you sit there with our unconscious president, hour after hour, like you do? Why, he doesn’t even know you’re here.”

    The man’s response was both empathetic and eloquent. “Because if he awakes in the dark, he’ll know he has a friend.”

     Our Lord is like a lot like that man, and more. He has been there. In essence, he asked a few of His friends to hold His hand in the dark. He gathered them around Him in The Garden, the night before His death. But they let Him down, as one by one they fell asleep.

     There’s no one like Jesus for knowing our condition or needs. Though it had been planned from the beginning, His own Father turned His back on Him, as He hung limply off those rough timbers. Because Our Lord has suffered rejection, He is able to succor all those who experience pain and disappointment, and even the throes of death itself.

 “We have not a High Priest Who cannot be touched with the feelings

     of our infirmities. For He was in all points tempted like as we are…

     yet without sin.

     Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy

     for our failures, and grace to help in the time of need.”

     (Hebrews 4:15,16, KJV)

    Our Lord offers us comfort, and we need never wonder if we have a friend in the dark.    

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 22. Copyright pending

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