'A feeble saint shall win the day'

Pads was feeling better enough today to start feeling guilty for slouching around this morning. He did seem quite low with what seemed like the on-set of a cold that didnt progress much during the day. We reassure him as much as possible that he's just a week out of surgery - and anyway - it is half term!
The parents were feeling a lot better than yesterday though...
It would be easy to get excited arriving at Jeremiah 39 for this morning's family bible reading. Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, is promised (v18), in the midst of all the death and destruction about to hit Jerusalem,

'thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.'

As unlikely as it seemed, this individual would escape. That God is able to miraculously heal Pads is beyond question, but it must be set against the distinct possibility that we are called witness to God's goodness though something else. As our Pastor was pointing out last Sunday, Paul knew, and desired above all, that 'Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.' (Phil 1:20) It made me think of olden days, of how valiant armies hurled themselves into battle, seemingly without regard to life or limb, if just a handful could survive to follow on and break through the enemy lines. Those who pave the way are no less honoured than those who are left to carry on the fight. There is a sense in which we are expendable. I realise that this totally kicks against the grain of secularism/materialism, with its insistence that all we have and all there is is what can be seen and felt. But, contrary to human army commanders, our Captain holds his people as the very 'apple of his eye' and 'leads me forth to conquest and a crown, [so that] a feeble saint shall win the day, though death and hell obstruct the way.' (Isaac Watts)