"Message in a Bottle"

I read in the news this week about a bottle with a message written by a woman who tossed it in the ocean in 2003 off Cape Ann in Massachusetts. The bottle was recently found 3000 miles across the Atlantic off the coast of France. The message came from Ann Hernandez, a lighthouse keeper on Thacher Island where she had thrown bottles with notes into the water every October on her birthday since 1991. In the note she identified herself and urged the finders to send a card to her. The people who found the note in the bottle tried to fulfill that request but learned that she had died unexpectedly last year at age 61 from complications from surgery.

Obviously, I never knew Ann Hernandez, but as I read the story something inside of me hoped that she would get her message answered. And then to think that someone did respond but it was too late...for some reason the story left me feeling disappointed for her.

I think I know the reason I felt that...We send out a message hoping that someone will hear, someone will care, someone will respond...We put up a prayer hoping the same thing of God--that He will hear, care and respond. And then we wait...hoping the reply will come before its too late.

To all of you who have sent out a message and put up a prayer and are now in that uncertain time of waiting, The Bible invites us to be certain of this: "The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:5-7.