“The Lord redeems the soul of his servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.” (Psalm 34:22)
Officials from the French National Transmission Safety Board have stated that it will be several more weeks until all the data has been reviewed to determine the exact cause of why Germanwings Flight 9525 – which left from Barcelona, Spain for Dusseldorf, Germany on March 24th – crashed into the French Alps.
It is speculated that it was a deliberate act of the co-pilot who locked himself in the cockpit and flew the plane intentionally into a mountain. The crash took the lives of 150 souls.
Have you ever noticed that tragedies like these always refer to passengers as souls? This description subtlety presumes death, but referring to the 150 passengers onboard as souls also acknowledges that there is another dimension to life that we only consider during a time like this one.
The truth is these passengers weren’t just headed to Dusseldorf or other destinations unknown. They were headed into eternity. We all are – in spite of what we may think our final destination may be. We don’t often see this spiritual truth as dramatically portrayed as it is in this tragedy, but every day we leave our homes, whether for work and play, we are headed towards eternity. It’s one of the reasons why my last word to my wife and children when I leave home or end a telephone conversation is always, “I love you”.
Our country enjoys more freedom that any country in the world. We treasure our right to free speech, but will not invoke it when it comes to sharing our faith with others. I find it strangely ironic that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending that right. Yet, we will not exercise it to help save one life. Our silence is deadly. We need to realize this truth as we move forward in our lives, as we relate to our neighbors and loved ones. Silence just doesn’t make sense in this case!
We also need to keep in mind that our lost friends may look like us, but there is something different about them on the inside. Jesus likened this principle in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13. He acknowledged that we all look alike on the outside and actually grow side by side. However, he promised that the day would come when all of us would be separated and judged, not by our outward appearance, but by what we have on the inside. “He who has ears, let him hear,” Jesus said. (Matthew 13:43)
Billy Graham once said, “God will never send anybody to hell. If man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice. Hell was created for the devil and his angels, not for man. God never meant that man should go there”.
We need to see our friends, neighbors, and coworkers for what they are. Just like the passengers on Germanwings Flight 9525, they are “souls,” too, and as such are headed for eternity, just like us. The only difference is they may have a different destination because they are making a wrong choice.
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