In March of 1993, eastern Kentucky experienced a “storm of the century”. Large amounts of snow were dumped on the town of Corbin, where I lived. Once we were able to get out of our house, we had a lot of fun with it. We built snow sculptures and snow forts. We had snowball fights and stayed out of school for many days.
My older brother, Clay, spent much of the time with his friend, Scott. Being the younger sibling, I tried following them everywhere, which proved difficult due to the deep snow and my short legs. At one point, Clay and Scott ran around behind our house. I slowly followed only to find Scott standing by a large pile of snow with a sad look on his face. He informed me that my brother had slipped and fallen off the steps behind our house and died and that he had buried him there. I was skeptical at first, but as I approached the mound of snow, the possibility began to sink in.
Most of you could guess what came next. As I approached the mound of snow that housed my now deceased brother, it began to move. Terror gripped me as Clay sprung forth from the snow screaming wildly. I ran as fast as my short legs could carry me through the snow, yelling all the way.
Sometimes the meanest people are the ones closest to us. Sometimes our own families are the most critical and skeptical. Today we will study an important relationship between two brothers in the Bible and what the grace of God did for them.