CHRISTIAN COMMENTGood news against all odds

Why have we been so gripped by it?

As Matt Frei, the BBC America correspondent said, a tale of unalloyed good news – against all the odds – is a rare thing.

Extraordinary euphoria that greeted the emergence of every trapped miner.

Even a crane – one of the key pieces of heavy plant so vital in this operation – was given an ovation as it trundled off-site this morning.

Now there are new stars in the firmament – Luis Urzua, Mario Gomez, Laurence Golborne.

Luis was the leader of the shift that suffered the original tunnel collapse that trapped them all. He was the one who established discipline – daily routines, rationing of food, exercise.

Mario Gomez, now 63 and a miner for nearly 50 years, became known as their ‘spiritual director’.

He requested bibles, CD’s, The Story of Jesus on DVD, and structured prayer-times around a make-shift altar.

Laurence Golborne, the mining minister, co-ordinated all aspects of the actual rescue plan so successfully that he has gone from the least known member of the Chilean cabinet only three months ago, to being widely touted as the leading presidential candidate for the 2014 elections.

But they are only the centre of what has been a truly uniting experience for the country.

Every view we have been given of Chile has been of a country moving towards salvation together.

This is why there has been such wide-spread jubilation.

Camp Hope itself – filled with relatives and friends of the miners, with relays of Christians from all denominations committed to continuous prayer for their countrymen, with visitors from all over the world hoping to catch something of the good news – summed up this common purpose.

As President Pinera said earlier today, when people think of Chile in the future, he trusts that it will not be as a place of fear and disaster but as a place of hope and belief in good outcomes.

And the doctors’ comments on the miners’ condition – with a few temporary ailments, they found all of them in extraordinary good health.

“Miraculously so” from one; “I was stupefied to find how well they are,” from another; and a third, “They were so well spiritually”. Powerful words, those.

Many, many people played a part in this wonderful story but maybe the key has been this: every single miner and many of those involved in the rescue had a common belief in the God of all hope.

It was around this firm expectation that they could unite both in stress and in joy.

Effectively, they could say to one another (as the apostle Paul wrote to one of the early churches), “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”.

The really good news is that, through Jesus Christ, that confidence is available to all of us.

Nigel O’Dwyer leads Goring New Life Baptist Church and helps co-ordinate churches across Worthing through Churches Together for Worthing