Rescued by the AMEN
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the rescue of two Florida teens in St. Augustine when the ocean’s strong currents pulled them two miles away from shore. Their faith in “God saves” was reassured when the captain of the yacht called “Amen” spotted them in the water when he was simply scanning the ocean for waves through his binoculars and heard their cries for help. High school senior, Tyler Smith, said, “We were just going to swim out to a small island we saw in the inlet. We thought, ‘That’s not far’. We’re athletes. No problem. We’re young teenagers. We don’t think about currents or anything like that. We’re like, ‘oh we can do this easy’, so we just swam out.”
The pair were stranded in the ocean for two hours (without life jackets) and were losing hope as the waves became rougher and the red buoy they were relying on as a point of reference and potential safety mark became out of reach. Tyler’s legs were cramping from swimming and treading water. Tyler said, “I started crying out to God, please send something, please send someone or some miracle to save us because I still want to see my family again.” That’s when it felt like a miracle occurred for the teens as a yacht, the AMEN, emerged about 200 yards from the desperate pair.
“At some point, it felt like it came out of nowhere. When I looked up I saw this big boat, I just had this feeling that I knew we were getting out of there,” Heather Brown said. She waved a stick she found in the water and started screaming as loud as she could. The Captain of the boat said, “Over the wind, waves, and engines, we thought we heard a desperate scream,” and we saw them.” Tyler said, recalling the memory, “”From us crying out to God, for Him to send someone for us to keep living and a boat named ‘Amen,’ there’s no way that it wasn’t Him,” Tyler said.
Fear gripped the hearts of Christ’s disciples when the storms, the winds, and the waves came to them on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus saw them from afar and walked on the water to save them. (Matthew 14:22-33). Though this happened over 2,000 years ago, it is still relevant to us today, and particularly to those who need to be rescued. Maybe you are one of those who is paralyzed by fear that grips your heart about what tomorrow holds.
That same fear may also be gripping those who are about to give up because matters have gotten worse and they fear for the loss of their marriage or their job or from a debilitating habit or illness or relationship breakdown.
Jesus still saves. Jesus – the same – yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) has the ability and wants to come walking on the water into all of our lives. His grace. His love. His mercy. He’s reaching out even now to RESCUE you and me from whatever fear or situation we are facing today. We’re crying out for help, Lord Jesus. As you are reaching out to us with your arms of love, we are reaching out to you. Jesus saves. AMEN!