“A Very Dramatic Rescue”

Sunday, July 15, 2018

This story is truly astonishing: in Thailand, a team of teenaged soccer players went for a hike in a cave they visit often, and a flash flood trapped them and their coach on a narrow ledge with nothing but the clothes on their backs. With incredibly diligent search efforts, it took 10 days for divers to find them. Once they were found, they were given flashlights, food, and letters from their families who were anxiously waiting outside the caves. After four more days, all of them were rescued by a complicated and very risky underwater extraction plan. They are in hospitals recovering, and all are going to be completely fine.

The story is compelling even if its details are told in a dry, facts-only way. It is dramatic, it is heroic, and it is so joyful!
It was interesting to note that news reports about the rescue efforts repeatedly emphasized the boys’ needs and how they were met: the first divers who found them gave them lights. Then they brought them oxygen so they could breathe. Then the rescuers brought them food. Then they brought them letters from family members.

And as reporters kept repeating those four things—light, breath, food, and family—I couldn’t help but see parallels to God’s plan of salvation. God came to us when we were stuck in darkness, and he brought us light (John 1:1-14). He brought us breath—the same Greek word which is translated “Spirit” in many places (Acts 2:38). He has told us about a family of people who care about us and wait to welcome us after our rescue (Eph. 2:19-22). And he has brought us food to sustain our souls eternally, calling himself “the bread of life” (6:48).

I don’t mean to sound like I think the events in Thailand these past few weeks were somehow orchestrated to demonstrate God’s plan of saving mankind. But if you thought that story was dramatic and joyful, how much more should God’s salvation of humanity excite us and fill us with joy? It is astonishing to fully realize how lost we are without him. And yet, it is even more astonishing to realize the herculean efforts which God himself has put forth to save each and every person. “you are… a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

- Dan Lankford, minister 

*one additional parallel realized after initial publishing: the rescued boys were brought safely through water—an exciting parallel to 1 Peter 3:18-22*

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