I Knew You'd Come
During WWI, an Australian soldier in the trenches of France saw his friend fall in a hail of bullets out in no man’s land. He asked his commanding officer for permission to go out and bring him in. The officer refused, saying that no one could live out there and he would just lose another man. The soldier disobeyed and went out anyway. Somehow, he got his friend onto his shoulders and staggered back to the trench. By this point, his friend was dead, and he had received a fatal injury. The officer was angry. “I told you not to go. Now I’ve lost both of you. It wasn’t worth it.” But the dying man, with his final breaths said, “It was.” “How,” asked the officer. “Your friend is dead and soon you will be too.” Looking into the officer’s face, he said, “It was worth it, sir, because when I got to him, he said, ‘Jim, I knew you’d come.’”
These two young men had enlisted together, trained together, and served together. They had faced danger and death many times. They knew that they could depend on each other. It’s impossible not to be moved by the picture of a man dying on the battlefield, his last moments made bearable because of his absolute certainty that his friend would come for him and the other so committed to his friend that even the possibility of death would not stop him coming to his friend’s aid.
In the best actions of people, we see the actions of God himself. After all, he created us in his own image. In the bible, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:27). That image is often hidden but not completely lost. The clearest picture of what God is like can be found in Jesus, who is the perfect image of God. Even knowing that he would die on the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, came to our aid. It was a price he willingly paid, and he calls us to imitate him and let the image of God shine clearly. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13).
Jesus is a good friend to have. The bible clearly portrays him as the one who is completely dependable and willing to sacrifice all for those who trust him. He will never abandon us. With Jesus as our friend then no matter what the difficulty, be it in this life or the next, we will be able to say with absolute certainty, “I knew you’d come.”
Neil Percival
These two young men had enlisted together, trained together, and served together. They had faced danger and death many times. They knew that they could depend on each other. It’s impossible not to be moved by the picture of a man dying on the battlefield, his last moments made bearable because of his absolute certainty that his friend would come for him and the other so committed to his friend that even the possibility of death would not stop him coming to his friend’s aid.
In the best actions of people, we see the actions of God himself. After all, he created us in his own image. In the bible, God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:27). That image is often hidden but not completely lost. The clearest picture of what God is like can be found in Jesus, who is the perfect image of God. Even knowing that he would die on the cross, Jesus, the Son of God, came to our aid. It was a price he willingly paid, and he calls us to imitate him and let the image of God shine clearly. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13).
Jesus is a good friend to have. The bible clearly portrays him as the one who is completely dependable and willing to sacrifice all for those who trust him. He will never abandon us. With Jesus as our friend then no matter what the difficulty, be it in this life or the next, we will be able to say with absolute certainty, “I knew you’d come.”
Neil Percival