Perceptions #200027

"I Knew You'd Come"

by Douglas F. Parsons

During World War I a soldier discovered that his friend, wounded, had fallen between the trenches out in "no man's land." Turning to his commanding officer he asked, "Sir, may I go and get him?" The officer replied curtly, "No one can live out there! I would just lose you, too!"

But ignoring the officer's command, he dashed from the safety of the trench to try to save his friend. With his friend on his shoulder, but now himself mortally wounded, he staggered and fell back into the trenches. The friend, they discovered, was now dead.

The officer, in lofty tones, rebuked him, "You fool! I told you not to go. Now I have lost both of you. It wasn't worth it!"

With his dying breath, the brave soldier replied, "But sir, it was worth it!" The officer was unimpressed. "Worth it?" He retorted. "Rubbish! Your friend is dead and you soon will be!"

Then the soldier's final words. He said, "It was worth it, sir, because when I got to him, he said, 'Jim, I knew you'd come!'"

Out there is the devil's no man's land, our friends are harboring a secret, often unrealized hope, that we will come with some rescue from an ever-increasing hopelessness. The tragedy is that our commanding officer, rather than rebuking foolish impetuousness in rushing to their aid, has commanded that we leave the safety of the fold's shelter and the companionship of the ninety and nine to go and bring them in!

There are no seasons to the search - it goes on around the clock throughout the calendar. No one is excused from the task. All are commanded to go. Jesus has promised to go with us. I don't know what reasons you might conjure up for not going or for the possibility of failure. All I know is that your friends are "out there" wounded, dying, waiting. Will you hear them say, "I knew you'd come?"

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