She was only seven years old. The lone survivor of a plane crash that killed her parents, her sister, and cousin.
The sheriff said, "she literally fell out of the sky into a dark hole." He called her survival "a miracle."
This "miracle" survivor somehow crawled out of the upside-down wreckage of her dad's plane. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. Shoeless. Through brambles and underbrush, this "remarkable" young girl navigated two embankments, a hill, and a creek bed in the dark.
And then the light. Actually, a single security light on a house. When she knocked on that door, a kind, grandfatherly man brought her inside.
She was safe.
One report said, "He thinks his security light may have been a beacon." A beacon for a little girl who had lost so much. But, thank God, she was alive.
And, for me, what a trigger to get me thinking.
About who I need to be this new year. For people who've lost so much. Who feel alone. Whose world has suddenly crashed. Who need someone to be a light — a "beacon” — in an otherwise dark night.
Actually, that is what my Jesus said I should be as His follower. "You are the light of the world," He said. "Let your light shine" (Matthew 5:14,16).
I've been thinking what it means for me to be that light for people in my personal world.
It means being one person they know who is all about their need, not my own. Who has time to listen. Who doesn't just ask the obligatory "How are you doing?" But who asks the second and third question to see if their obligatory "fine" is really how they're doing.
Being a light means being the one who refuses to hear or speak trash talk about anyone. Who protects a person's name when they're not in the room. Who builds a person up and never tears them down. Someone who says, "Thank you" … “I'm sorry" … and "I was wrong."
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