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Themes Running from God CANNONBALL STEW Wilmer McLean was a farmer. He purposely bought his farm in a quiet spot in Virginia. He didn't like crowds, noise and trouble. He liked to be left alone. But trouble came. It was July 1861. Civil war had begun in the United States. Shots had been fired but no large battle had yet occurred. Then the armies of the north and the South gathered near Manassas Junction. The officers from the South, the Confederates, took over Wilmer McLean's farm as a headquarters. It was lunch time and the officers were about to sit down with the McLeans to lunch when a cannon was fired at the house. The cannon ball traveled straight down the chimney, landing in a kettle of stew. The battle was on - the Battle of Bull Run. But troubles didn't end there. Another battle happened in the exact same place a year later. It was time for McLean to move. He must have looked over his map of Virginia to find the most unlikely place for a battle to happen. He wanted to hide from problems. He chose a quiet secluded little spot called Appomattox Court House. No one would ever bring the war there. But now it is 1865. The North has been pushing the South relentlessly in the battle. General Lee has retreated in the face of the advance of Grant and the Northern army. Lee and his men, badly outnumbered, poorly equipped, and weary from years of heroic fighting, could hold out no longer. They will meet with Grant to discuss surrender. Do you know where they were? It was Appomattox Court House. The soldiers were looking for a place to meet. They asked a man to show them a building. He showed them an empty old building, but they were not satisfied. They decided to meet in his "parlor". So Wilmer McLean had no choice but to invite them into his parlor. The man who tried to run from the war, saw it comeinto his house again. He is supposed to have said, "The war began in my dining room and ended in my parlor". Men learn that they can not always escape things on earth. But it is far more important to realize that you cannot escape God. He is aware of your sin. He records your sin. He will make men accountable or responsible for what they have done. Men may seek to hide from God, but there is no hiding place. Even "heaven and earth" will flee away (Rev 20:11). Men will be summoned to stand before God. But there is a Hiding Place. It is a person: God's only Son. At calvary, He took the punishment of God for us (Isaiah 53:5) so He could be our Hiding place (Isaiah 32:2). You can't run from God. Why not, like the Prodigal Son, run to Him and find forgiveness and a place of hiding?
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