Sent and Guarded
Numbers 6:25 · John 17:15 (NIV)
Firefighters at Station 21 in Cobb County, Georgia, had just finished a class in emergency care for pets.
The training came through VEG ER for Pets, a veterinary emergency clinic. On the crew's very next shift, a call came in. A pregnant dog was having trouble giving birth and needed an emergency C-section. Fifteen puppies were born.
The firefighters went to work. They cleared the newborns' sacs, suctioned their airways and noses, gave the medicines the puppies needed, and placed them in incubators. Dr. Lauren Savoy, the veterinarian, credited the crew's quick action for the puppies' survival, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. ABC's World News Tonight also told the story this week.
"We officially got certified in pet care, they didn't tell me that we'd be delivering puppies a shift later," firefighter Damien Whitehead said. The births happened in August. In October the crew met the puppies again. Firefighter Brian Powell said, "They would fit in the palm of my hand and now I'm using two to hold them."
Today's 1440, a daily news digest, shared a smaller story from one of its readers. A reader named Kati, from Kentucky, was near the front of a long grocery line when she realized she had forgotten something. The woman behind her looked at her face and said, "Run!" Kati ran, and the woman moved her cart up for her. When Kati came back, she helped the woman unload her groceries. That is when she noticed the woman had a broken foot.
Both stories show people carrying help to whoever was in front of them.
On the night before HIS death, JESUS prayed for HIS disciples. John's Gospel, one of the four accounts of the life of JESUS, records that prayer in chapter 17. JESUS asked the Father for something specific. "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one" (John 17:15). Then HE added, "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18).
The disciples go out under that prayer, sent by JESUS and entrusted to the Father's protection. HE asks that they be kept from the evil one as they remain in the world, where hardship is still real.
The prayer reaches further still. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message" (John 17:20). Every believer since that night stands inside that prayer, including whoever reads these words today.
Long before that night, GOD gave Moses a blessing for the priests to speak over Israel. Moses led Israel out of Egypt, and his brother Aaron served as the first high priest. GOD instructed Moses to give Aaron and his sons the words of the blessing (Numbers 6:23). Part of it reads, "the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:25-26).
Psalm 67 picks up that same blessing and turns it outward. "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us," the psalm begins, "so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations" (Psalm 67:1-2). The blessing moves through the people who receive it toward everyone else. A few lines later the psalm says why the nations can be glad: "you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth" (Psalm 67:4). The psalm closes the way it opened: "May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him" (Psalm 67:7).
The apostle Paul, who planted churches across the Roman world, wrote to believers in the Greek city of Philippi. Near the end of that letter he wrote, "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." He urged them to bring their requests to GOD in prayer, with thanksgiving. Then he told them that "the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:5-7).
In that verse the guarding belongs to GOD's peace.
A bishop named Irenaeus led the church in Lyon, in what is now France, around AD 180. In Against Heresies III.21.6, he read Isaiah's promised sign of Emmanuel, meaning "God with us," as pointing to the virgin birth of CHRIST. Irenaeus said the sign came "since an unlooked-for salvation was to be provided for men through the help of God." Speaking of that birth, he wrote: "God giving this sign, but man not working it out" (Against Heresies III.21.6).
The blessing, the prayer, and the peace in these passages all start with GOD. HIS blessing moves outward, and HIS peace guards the people it moves through.
It does leave me thinking about who might be standing behind me in line today.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one heading into a hard shift today, JESUS prayed for HIS people to be protected in the world.
🙏 To the one with a racing mind, the peace of GOD stands guard over your heart.
🙏 To the one hurting while still helping others, GOD sees the kindness you carry.
🙏 To the one who feels unblessed, the Lord turns HIS face toward you.
Grace and Peace.