The Rest of the Story

“O LORD, please rescue me! Come quickly to help me, O LORD!” Psalm 40:13

Sunday was a highly anticipated day by all of us on our family vacation. We had talked about paddle boarding all week, jokingly boasted at how well we would do and finally found ourselves awaiting our turn. When it was my nine-year-old granddaughter’s turn she attached the ankle strap, grabbed the paddle and confidently jumped on the board. She stood up and off she went,while we were all clapping for her. Suddenly like some of the rest of us she fell off, but something made her panic. She began crying and we could tell it was not a moment of frustration. She was genuinely scared and felt out of control of her circumstances. I can only imagine looking at the surface of that expansive body of water from her little eyes. She must have seemed so far from the floating dock. At that moment our daughter Caroline dove in and swam over to her board. She tried to calm Kherington and eventually convinced her to climb back up on the board. Caroline began swimming towards another floating dock dragging the board and Kherington behind her, while the current was pulling them out. After swimming and pulling the board quite a long distance she eventually was able to get both of them to safety on a floating dock up the river. At that point, Bruce knew that both of them were exhausted. He jumped on the other paddle board, got on his knees and raced over there. One by one he put them on his board and transported the exhausted and emotionally spent twosome. I saw two heroes on Sunday who placed the lives of others above their own. Kherington was soon back in the arms of her mother, and Caroline was soon back in the arms of her mother. There were prayers being lifted from everyone no matter the vantage point. God showed up big that day like He always does. He gave both Caroline and Bruce the strength to rescue, and He gave Kherington the peace and relief that she had help. Sometimes God uses others to intervene and other times He reaches down from Heaven and rescues with His own hands that created us. He was the ultimate Deliverer through His protection of all three.

These pictures remind me of how God rescues and saves when we need delivery. When we are at our weakest He is at His strongest. When we fail to see a path in our dire circumstances He shows up with a means of hope and promise. Even if we are depleted and discouraged, He is right behind us moving us through the deep waters back to shore. Like Kherington and Caroline our part is to not fight the process, but completely trust Him in the process. He will not fail us, and He is always with us no matter what situation in which we find ourselves.

“…and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.” Isaiah 58:8