Lord Jesus, nothing catches you off guard and what a precious thought that is.

You are the great sovereign king over the universe and hold us in the palm of your hand.

Steady, I pray, our hearts and those who feel most anxious.

Free us from those things which would hinder our hearing of your voice this morning.

In Jesus' name, I ask it, Amen.

I want you to try to picture something with me here.

There's a young doctor who has a wife and three children and he has

volunteered to take a special six-month mission to a place where there has been an outbreak of a very

unusual and deadly disease. There's a lot of hostility among the people in this place towards outsiders.

He's volunteered to take this mission because there's nobody else with his training who's willing to go.

And so he goes and leaves behind the wife and the three children.

And the months passed by slowly and the kids are missing their daddy very much.

And mom's trying to hold everything together and doing a valiant job of it,

being mom and dad to these kids.

And finally, the day of the return approaches and the kids are running around the house.

Daddy's coming home today. Daddy's coming home today. And mom's got

butterflies in her tummy and at last the taxi pulls up in the driveway and the kids storm out of the front door.

Daddy's here, daddy's here.

And mom comes running out with her heart beating so hard she can feel it and the back door of the taxi opens and dad steps out.

A good bit thinner than when he left and a big beard on his face to cover the sunken cheeks.

And the kids charge at him and he gets buried on the grass under six clinging arms and legs and everybody gets his kiss.

Finally he breaks loose and mom gets her embrace.

...