A magnitude 7 earthquake struck northern Armenia on December 7, 1988, midway between the cities of Gyumi and Spitak. It lasted 4 minutes and took almost 50,000 lives.
Moments after the tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived he saw that the building had been levelled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.”
Driven by his promise, he found the area closest to his son’s classroom and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and grieved for their children. “It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. You can’t help.” Even a police officer encouraged him to give up.
The father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands turned raw and his energy spent, but he refused to quit.
Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called the boy’s name, “Arman! Arman!” And a voice answered him, “Papa, it’s me!”
Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised…”
(Excerpt from “When Christ Comes”, Max Lucado, 1999)
Perhaps you’ve heard this before.
An elementary school was indeed flattened by the earthquake and only a few dozen kids, out of hundreds, survived. No one knows if this story’s true. Even if it is it might have been retold and embellished. But to me there’s nothing phoney about it.
Perhaps we’ve been taking promises too lightly. How often we’ve made them just to pacify a pesky kid, to get out of a situation, only to shirk them when it becomes inconvenient for us to fulfill them.
We think we could get away with it because they’re just kids, or because the someone to whom we made promises isn't important enough for us to keep them.
I’m as guilty as anyone else in this, and that’s why I’d like to share this story that reminded me of the true power of a promise made and kept.
It isn’t just for parents. It’s for humanity.
Photo credit JonathanCohen via Foter.com
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