Smoke Signal

[Debbie]

<center>The only survivor of a shipwreck washed up
on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly
for God to rescue him.Every day he scanned
the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little
hut out of driftwood to protect him from the
elements and to store his few possessions.
But then one day after scavenging for food,
he arrived home to find his little hut in flames,
the smoke rolling up to the sky.
The worst had happened; everything was lost.

He was stung with grief and anger."God, how could
you do this to me!" he cried.
Early the next day, however, he was awakened
by the sound of a ship that was approaching
the island.It had come to rescue him
."How did you knowI was here?" asked the
weary man of his rescuers.
"We saw your smoke signal" they replied.

Just when things look bleakest,
hang in there a little while longer.
The next time your little hut is burning to the ground,
it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.</center>

Author Unknown

A Parable of Immortality
by Henry Van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There! She's gone." Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There! She's gone." There are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "There, she comes!"