A Couple of Modern Homilies

A man living in a small town that had become suddenly flooded was forced to seek refuge upon the roof of his house. During the time he was there he prayed almost continuously to God to come and rescue him. During the course of his prayers he heard a thump against the side of the house and, looking over the edge, saw a small boat with a life jacket rocking gently in the flood waters. He debated whether to get into the boat, but decided it would be too dangerous. Besides, God was going to rescue him, of that he was certain. He had faith. Later on, perhaps an hour or so, while the flood waters climbed slowly higher, a police launch happened by filled with people heading for safety. The driver of the launch got as close to the man's house as he could and encouraged him to climb aboard. The man thought about it and decided it would be too dangerous to try to board the launch with the rising flood waters raging beneath him, so he declined saying, "No thank you. I know that God is going to rescue me and He wouldn't place me in such danger to do so. So I'll wait." The police launch left the man behind, getting all of its passengers to safety. The flood was now reaching critical stage and the man barely had any roof left to stand upon and he was becoming frantic in his prayers. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, he saw a helicopter appear over him. The crew lowered the basket for the man to get into but, again, it seemed to hazardous an undertaking, so he declined the help, stating as before his belief that God was going to rescue him. The helicopter crew persisted, however, and spent close to an hour trying to convince the man to come aboard before they had to leave because they were running out of fuel. The man, left thus alone, sat praying and saying to himself, "Surely God will not let me die here. He will come and rescue me." The flood waters swirled and peaked, overwhelming the roof of the man's house and sweeping him into a vortex of incredible power. He was dead in moments. It was some time later, he did not know how long, that the man awakened to find himself in Heaven at the proverbial Pearly Gates and in the presence of none other than God Himself. God said, "Welcome, my son!" The man replied, "God how come you let me drown in that flood? I was so certain you were going to rescue me!" God replied, "My son, I tried. I sent you a rowboat, a police launch, and a rescue helicopter."(author unknown)

There are a couple of other little tales that I feel have merit as modern homilies that I want to track down and include here. None are original to me but because I am recording more from memory than a more usual resource they will appear in a somewhat altered state. This is not a deliberate attempt on my part to usurp the intellectual property of another or to plagerize on someone else's writing. Because of the wisdom I have found within the humor in the above story, as well as the other two I still want to share here, I am going to risk the dearth of accurate information and hope someone will send me the necessary information as to original authors, etc. if I am unable to track it down on my own. All of the stories have to do with the perspectives from which we choose to view God and poke a little fun at the thought of how God, perhaps, may choose to view us.

Blessings and much love,
Izzlebug