Crickey!

Rather unusually I put on the TV this morning but as I flicked over to GMTV I was suddenly confronted by some unexpected news; Steve Irwin [aka the Crocodile Hunter] had died as a result of being struck by the poisonous barb of a Stingray.

I couldn't believe it.

Of course I didn't know the guy personally (and I was unlikely to ever meet him since he lived in Australia) but I loved his passionate desire to engage people with local wildlife as well and trying to protect it. Every time I happened to notice 'Crocodile Hunter Diaries' was on TV I would be enthusiastically glued to the screen.
Needless to say I was over the moon to discover that he had made a film (which Ruth and I hired out one Valentines Day).

But now he is no longer with us.
At 44 his passionate enthusiasm seems to have been cut short.

Ruth and I had breakfast in a sense of shock, praying for his family as we said 'grace'.

I then began to wonder 'where he was now?'
I struggle at times like this.
As far as I knew he did not realise or accept Jesus as his saviour. I then realised that if I was God [in my present frailties] I would try to bend the rules to ensure that he was in heaven. Then thoughts begin to drift through my mind wondering why God couldn't be as compassionate as this.
And then I realise that He was even more compassionate!
He is compassionate and just [thank God!]. Therefore knowing that He had to be just His heart was stirred with such awesome compassion for Steve [and us] and so went further than any of us could imagine or dare; in Jesus Christ he went to the cross! That is his unswerving compassion for us!

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again." John 3:16-17 (Msg)