When I was young many of the men in our little country church began their prayers with these beautiful words from Psalm 103, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
On Good Friday Daughter # 3’s third son 岡田友矢(Tomoya Okada – also known as Jonathan) made his entrance into the world 4 weeks early and wrinkled up like a little old man but a very healthy weight. He was able to leave the hospital with his mother a few days later.
Just out of the hospital
Tomo means friend(s) and ya means arrow(s).His parents took the name from the story of David and Jonathan and the arrows in 1 Samuel chapter 20.
The story often brings to my mind those verses in Proverbs, “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:11,12)
It would have been so much easier for Jonathan to say “I didn’t know.” But Jonathan was willing to jeopardize his own future to do right by his friend.
A friend like that is a real gift from God – and that, by the way, is what Jonathan means: God’s gift.
Daughter # 3 with Jonathan last Wednesday
Last Tuesday Psalm 102 was in two of our Bible readings and I thought again of those verses in Proverbs 24:10-12.... God works BUT good men must not be passive!
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