Rescue - One Good Word a Day

Rescue

In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

LYING IN THE BOTTOM of the car, I listened to the whine of mosquitoes and waited anxiously for help to arrive. My three friends and I had been driving, carefree and young, on Memorial Day weekend, the lowering sun our only accompaniment on the dusty gravel roads. But when the car hit loose gravel and skidded into the ditch, landing on its side, I knew something inside my body had broken. As my friends climbed out of the steaming car and waited for help to arrive, time felt agonizingly slow.

The sound of sirens was the sweetest music I’d ever heard. Through the haze of pain, I felt immense relief when a fireman climbed in with me, his sweat dripping as he covered me with a blanket to protect me from the glass they’d need to shatter to get me out of the vehicle. Voice tight with emotion, he asked me if I knew a certain girl, about my age. We were close to a neighboring town, and I didn’t recognize the name, so I shook my head no. I must have reminded him of someone he loved.

In that moment of pain and confusion, as the jaws of life pulled back the roof of the car and they transferred me to the ambulance, I felt overwhelming gratitude for the emergency responders who had shown up when I needed them. They had rescued me from a situation I had no way of escaping on my own.

We don’t often need the kind of literal rescuing I did as a seventeen-year-old. But we often experience pain, suffering, circumstances beyond our control, uncertainty, anxiety, and other troubles—and wonder if we’ll ever escape. Thankfully, we are beloved children of a God who knows and sees us in our distress and—what’s more—sympathizes. He enters into our suffering and walks alongside us, as Jesus himself did in his death and resurrection. And in doing so, he rescues us from the weight of sin. Though we will experience hardship in this life, we are never alone. Our rescuer and redeemer is always at our side.

Lord, thank you for rescuing us. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Do you see Jesus as your rescuer? Why or why not? Spend time examining your response.