Saving the children

Most of us recently were paying close attention to what was happening in a cave in Thailand.   12 boys and a coach had gone into a cave and were forced to move further into the cave to escape the rising water from a Monsoon that had come through.  After several days, divers were able to locate them in a chamber that was several miles back.   How those boys must have felt being in that dark chamber thinking no one would ever be able to find them... let alone save them.   They must have felt completely hopeless and alone as they sat on that muddy cave slope.   As a kid, I used to go canoeing on the Current River in southern Missouri.   Every year my friends and I went to the same spots to have freeze-out competitions, cliff jumping, raft wars and then going into a large cave at the end.   This cave would go back almost a quarter mile (there was only one path so no fear of getting lost).   We would go back to the farthest chamber and then turn our flashlights off for 10 seconds.   To this day, that is the blackest darkness I have ever experienced (I still use that memory as a way to thwart a "sneeze" I don't want to come out).   Those 10 seconds seemed like an eternity to me. 

I can't imagine how they must have felt when that first scuba diver appeared.   The shear JOY they must have felt could not be replicated by the most seasoned Hollywood actor I am sure.  The cheers echoing off those cave walls must have been deafening. 

Their plight was not much different from our as humans on this earth.   We were trapped in our sins with no way out and a feeling that no one cared.    We, like these kids, wandered away from God and went places we should not have gone.   We were warned, but we felt we knew better.   Like those rescuers, God went searching for us and risking everything.   Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep and how the shepherd "leaves the 99 and goes searching for the 1 lost sheep".  For these lost kids, the rescuers had to risk it all as well.   I am sure many of the divers who endured the treacherous 3 hour swim to their chamber had their own children to think of too.   The kids trapped in the cave were worth as much, if not more, than their own children sleeping safely in their own beds.   God risked it all too when he sent his son to come and save us.

 Do you think the scuba divers chastised them for being so foolish and stupid?    Do you think the first words out of their mouth was: "You stupid foolish boys!! Look what you put me through!  I could be home with my kids right now, but instead I have to endure 3 hours underwater and difficult conditions to come looking for the likes of you!  I should just leave you here!  You deserve what you get!  But I guess I will take it easy on you and tell others where you are at anyway!"

I doubt that was what he said to them.   I am sure he was calming with them and told them how happy he was to have found them.   He must have reassured them that they will get them out of the cave in due time and all we will okay.

Jesus, too, came and reassured us of what was to come.   He told us, "The Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world but to SAVE the world!".   In another verse Jesus says, "I have come that you might have LIFE and have it to the FULL!". 

Jesus, like those divers, just tells us to trust him.   The divers had to teach the boys how to scuba dive and take them though some of the most dangerous and dark water they would ever experience.   This dive was so difficult that even a seasoned Thai Navy SEAL died in the process.   Now they would need to help get 11-16 year boys through the same water.   One person said that in the most treacherous part, the water is like swimming through black coffee.   They needed the boys to trust that they would lead them out.  Jesus too asks us to trust him to lead us out of this world.   He, like the diver, has already "swam through death" for us and we can know for sure we are in good hands and like those boys, joined with our waiting families on the other side.

The divers must have told the boys right before they left the chamber what they would be facing.  They must have reminded them that even in the darkest water, they would be right there with them  and they would be connected to them with a tether-line at all times.    Right before Jesus ascended he said, "Truly I am with you ALWAYS!  Even unto the end of the world!".   In another verse he says, "My Father holds on to his children and nothing can take them from his hand!".    We are baptized in Christ Jesus and we are tethered to him now and into eternity.   

Jesus is with us though the blackest black that life can throw at us.  Failed marriages, lost jobs, cancer, addiction, loss of loved ones, hatred, scorn, loneliness, not being understood, fear.   Through all of these he is tethered to us and can lead us out.

He just bids us to "Come follow me!"