Our God Is Able To Deliever Us

Daniel 3:17-18

17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up .

The faith of the three men in this story is amazing.  As they faced certain death, they did not back down from their faith in God.  They basically said, "God can save our physical bodies from this fire" and "Even if God doesn't save our physical bodies, we will still worship Him alone, no matter what."

After my daughter was burned in a house fire last year, as I was waiting for the ambulance and my daughter was struggling to breathe, I prayed a similar prayer.  I remember praying, "God you CAN save her!  We know you have ALL power! You can do ALL things!"  I know I wasn't telling God something He didn't know, but I wanted Him to know that if my daughter did survive, I there would be no doubt in my mind that HE was behind it.  I also wanted to go straight to the most powerful, merciful healer - my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I brought my daughter before Him and begged for His mercy and power of healing over her.  I was on my knees on a dusty gravel road with my child in my arms before the very throne of God, begging and pleading in a loud voice for more time with her.  That is how I felt.  My two other children were beside me.  At one point, as I was praying aloud, I realized that they were saying in unison over and over - "LIVE! LIVE! LIVE!"  I told them, "Say 'Jesus help our baby to live'" and they prayed together in unison for their baby sister. 

Later that day, the official fire inspector told us that after seeing the ruins of our trailer (completely burned down to the ground) and hearing a description of the rescue of the child, he would have had no doubt in his mind that the child either died in the fire or soon thereafter.  He said that with the trailer completely filled with black smoke, the temperature of where our daughter was laying should have been 900 degrees.  He said it was his opinion that the hand of Jesus Christ was over her, keeping the heat from burning her up.  He said that when I opened to door, the fire should have exploded in my face, knocking me back and burning me.

After that conversation, I realized that Jesus had ALREADY saved her life, even before I asked Him.  He was already with her.  He was with her IN THE FIRE.  And He stayed with her, helping her heal.  That is what I believe.

But the men of God in the Book of Daniel took it even further.  They claimed that they would trust and worship God, even if He did not rescue them.  Could I say the same?  Could I still worship God, even if He chose to take my sweet baby to heaven on that day?  There is no way for me to know for sure, but I hope that my faith would be that strong.  I know that life is short here on the earth.  We have a few days and we have much misery, but Heaven is waiting on the other side.  I believe that more strongly that ever.  I am so thankful for our hope of Heaven and eternal life.  Later that same day, after Rose was airlifted to Children's hospital, I told my two older children, "They are taking good care of Rose now, but she still might go to heaven." My 4 year old son replied, "It's better to be in Heaven."  A beautiful  and comforting truth (the most comforting thing that was said to me on that terrible day, in fact) from the mouth of a babe.