A Mother’s Memory

Scripture References: Joshua 22:21-28; John 11:51-52

In 1961, a seventeen-year-old runaway who was serving time in a reform school surrendered the son born to her there. In 1980 she began a determined effort to find the boy who would have been nineteen years old. The search led to a welfare department, where she learned that her boy had died of peritonitis when he was four years old. No further information was available. Unwilling to give up, she began pouring over old newspaper accounts that raised suspicions about the boy’s death. She took her findings to the police. After experts had carefully studied the dead boy’s autopsy report, they determined he had been beaten to death. In January, 1987, the lad’s adoptive mother was indicted for murder.

An obvious question arose. Why wasn’t the boy’s death more critically examined, since welfare workers had subsequently removed other children from that household? Apparently no one felt concerned enough or thought to make the connection. But twenty-five years after her son had died without cause, a mother’s persistent efforts kept his memory alive and brought him justice.

God audibly expressed his appreciation of Jesus on at least four occasions: his birth, his baptism, his transfiguration, and during the week of his crucifixion. God’s approval of Christ’s sacrifice has no bounds. He honored that sacrifice when he raised Christ from the dead and will never allow anyone else to dishonor it. Since he accepted Christ’s sacrifice as the completed redemptive act, summarizing all Old Testament sacrifices and human desires, God constantly demands our obedience to Christ’s will. He will never accept less.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved.