Joining Hands
In 1985, during the Southern Baptist Convention’s Pastor’s Conference, W. A. Criswell, former Pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church of Dallas, TX told a story. The story was about a little boy who got lost in a giant wheat field in Kansas just at harvest time. By the time the mother of the little boy realized that he was missing, several hours had gone by. She had been busy preparing dinner for the hands that were helping harvest the wheat and had not noticed that he was missing. She frantically raced to the field where her husband and the hired people were working and they began to search. One of the hands was dispatched to the neighbors to get help to look for the little boy. They searched for hours, but were not able to find him. Finally the father of the little boy asked all the hired people and neighbors to hold hands as they walked the wheat fields together where they finally found the boy not far from the house, who had perished in the hot sun. The final picture he painted in our minds was the little boy’s mother holding him as she exclaimed, “If only we had joined hands sooner”.
It is a sad story to be sure, but the exclamation by the mother at the end, is a reminder to all of us that if we are going to see a brighter day, and a brighter future for the US, we will all have to join hands to do it. People of good will from all political parties, from all faiths, and all backgrounds will need to work together to continue the upward progress of this great country of ours.
Does that mean we have to cave in on our convictions? Certainly not! It simply means that more work is needed to be done in persuading the opposition to join with us for the good of the nation.
Will America go the way of all the great civilizations of the past? Like Rome, who was the epitome of civilization in it’s day, only to fall because of the ruin and corruption among it’s citizenry and government.
America’s brightest days are yet to come, but will only be realized if the good people of this nation join together in making it happen.
