This may be one of the most difficult things I have read in years. I have read it over and over for a couple of years and still can't get past it. I know I have sent it our multiple times but here it is again. The photo is of the graveyard and the Goossen Grave
Charles Edward White wrote:
"The only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango," White concluded, "is to remember that God also buried his Son on the mission field."
For a missionary couple who stand beside a mound of earth in a garden in Nigeria, no logical explanation of unanswered prayer will suffice. They must place their faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, that God's good purpose will, in the end, prevail. To cling to that belief may represent the ultimate rationalization----or the ultimate act of faith.
No Fixed Formula (Phillip Yancey from Prayer: Does it make a difference?)
Even after spelling out some of what we do wrong in our prayers, however - especially after spelling that out - I must repeat that prayer does not work according to a fixed formula: get your life in order, say the right words, and the desired result will come. If that were true, Job would have avoided much suffering, Paul would have shed his thorn in the flesh, and Jesus would never have gone to Golgotha. Between the two questions "Does God answer prayer?" and "Will God grant my specific prayer for this sick child or this particular injustice?" lies a great pool of mystery.
Charles Edward White, a college professor in the state of Michigan spent several terms as a visiting professor at the University of Jos in Nigeria. While there, he visited a missionary graveyard in a quiet garden beside a chapel on Nigeria's Central Plateau. Most of the graves he noticed were small: two and three-foot mounds to accommodate child-sized coffins. 33 of the 56 graves in fact held the bodies of small children......Two infants lived just one day. Others lived a few years, falling victim to the tropical diseases common in that part of the world. Melvin Louis Goossen was twelve when he and his brother fell off a suspension bridge over a rain swollen creek. Their missionary father, Arthur Goossen dived in the creek to save one son. But when he dived after Melvin, both father and son drowned....
Charles Edward White, a college professor in the state of Michigan spent several terms as a visiting professor at the University of Jos in Nigeria. While there, he visited a missionary graveyard in a quiet garden beside a chapel on Nigeria's Central Plateau. Most of the graves he noticed were small: two and three-foot mounds to accommodate child-sized coffins. 33 of the 56 graves in fact held the bodies of small children......Two infants lived just one day. Others lived a few years, falling victim to the tropical diseases common in that part of the world. Melvin Louis Goossen was twelve when he and his brother fell off a suspension bridge over a rain swollen creek. Their missionary father, Arthur Goossen dived in the creek to save one son. But when he dived after Melvin, both father and son drowned....
Charles Edward White wrote:
The graveyard at Miango tells us something about God and about His grace. It testifies that God is not a jolly grandfather who satisfies our every desire. Certainly those parents wanted their children to live. They plead with God but He denied their request.
The graves also show us that God is not a calculating merchant who withholds his goods until we produce enough good works or faith to buy his help. If anyone had earned credit with God, it would have been these missionaries. They left all to spread the gospel in a hostile environment, But God does not hand out merit pay.
Not only do we learn about God's nature from the Miango graveyard, but we also discover truths about God's grace. God's grace may be free, but it is not cheap. Neither purchasing our salvation nor letting us know the gift was inexpensive.
Beginning with Abel, many of the witnesses to divine grace sealed their words with blood. Jesus asked the Jews which of the prophets was not persecuted? When he first sent out his disciples, he promised them betrayal and death. Then, at the end of his ministry, he promised his followers that as they carried out his word, they would face trouble and hatred.."
"The only way we can understand the graveyard at Miango," White concluded, "is to remember that God also buried his Son on the mission field."
For a missionary couple who stand beside a mound of earth in a garden in Nigeria, no logical explanation of unanswered prayer will suffice. They must place their faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, that God's good purpose will, in the end, prevail. To cling to that belief may represent the ultimate rationalization----or the ultimate act of faith.
I love this review. It does away with the notion of God being this Being that grants wishes and desires according to merits! If that was the case, there are a lot of things that would have never happened and there are millions more that would have ended up in catastrophes because of our emotions that normally take over along with our 'near sightedness.'
ReplyDeleteThe Gossenns did not fall off the suspension bridge. Melvin and a few of his classmates were on the shore having a picnic (I think). They went for a swim in the river below the suspension bridge. They did not know that the bottom of the river dropped very quickly at the point where the boys were swimming. They also did not realize the current was so strong and that it had hollowed out the river at that point making it quite a bit deeper than they thought. The boys were caught in that strong, downward current. All of them but Melvin made it back to shore. When Melvin's dad realized his son was swept down by that eddying current he jumped in to save him but was also dragged under. Mrs. Goossen drove the few miles to Miango frantic to get help. It took several tries with ropes tied to the rescuers to get the 2 bodies up and on to the shore. They tried and tried to resisitate them but it was way, way too late. At least that is the way I remember the story, having been at Kent Academy, Miango when this happened.
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