Dong Yun Yoon of University City, California, will never forget this Christmas. Two weeks ago, his family was killed when a Marine F-18 Hornet fighter jet lost power and crashed into his home.<\/p>\n
In an instant, this season of joy become a time of unimaginable sorrow for Yoon. However, his response to the tragedy can only be described as a great gift to all of us.<\/p>\n
The plane\u2019s engines failed during a training flight off the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The pilot, Lt. Dan Neubauer, tried to reach Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego but wound up safely ejecting from the plane about two miles from the station.<\/p>\n
The plane crashed into the Yoon\u2019s just-moved-into home. Young Mi Yoon, their daughters Rachel and Grace, and her mother were killed.<\/p>\n
While the tragedy was front-page news, what happened next captured the imagination of the country. The next day, an understandably devastated Yoon told reporters that he didn\u2019t have any \u201chard feelings\u201d toward the pilot and that he knew that the pilot \u201cdid everything he could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only that, Yoon said, \u201cI pray for him not to suffer for this action,\u201d and called him \u201cone of our treasures for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having embodied grace and forgiveness, Yoon then told reporters what made it possible: \u201cI believe my wife and two babies and mother-in-law are in heaven with God,\u201d and he prayed with other family members and friends.<\/p>\n
Yoon\u2019s words and actions reminded Adrian Hong, a human rights advocate, of the circumstances surrounding the writing of the hymn \u201cIt Is Well with My Soul\u201d \u2014 in both instances, tragedy and sorrow were turned into a great witness to the power of Christian hope.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s another hymn this episode brings to mind \u2014 \u201cHark the Herald Angels Sing\u201d by Charles Wesley. In the last stanza we sing that Jesus was \u201cborn that man no more may die\u201d and \u201cborn to raise the sons of earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
While we may not associate Christmas and the Incarnation with our Lord\u2019s victory over death, the Church fathers did.<\/p>\n
In \u201cOn the Incarnation of the Word,\u201d Athanasius wrote that it was because all of us were \u201cunder penalty of the corruption of death\u201d that the Word took \u201cto Himself a body capable of death.\u201d Since the Word \u201cby His one body has come to dwell among\u201d us, \u201cthe corruption of death which before was prevailing against [Man] is done away.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result of what Athanasius called \u201cHis gracious coming among us,\u201d \u201cthe way up into the heavens\u201d is \u201cmade ready\u201d for those, like the Yoons, who put their faith in him.<\/p>\n
This \u201cnew beginning of life for us\u201d and the graciousness that makes it possible is at the heart of the Christian hope. It consoles us and enables us to be gracious even when our world is falling apart.<\/p>\n
It is this hope, born on the first Christmas, that Peter tells us we must always be ready to explain.<\/p>\n
Dong Yun Yoon certainly was. For that he has my gratitude and prayers.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2008 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dong Yun Yoon of University City, California, will never forget this Christmas. Two weeks ago, his family was killed when a Marine F-18 Hornet fighter jet lost power and crashed into his home. In an instant, this season of joy become a time of unimaginable sorrow for Yoon. However, his response to the tragedy can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[258,4355,86,278,520,4594],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}