The tsunami, a ten-meter (nearly forty-foot) wall of water, roared in from the sea on December 26, 2004, killing more than 150,000 people on the Indian Ocean shores. On one island the seething mass of churning water came round the shore from one direction. Seconds later another white wall rounded the other side of the island, the waves surging towards each other. This was the first wave, and it sent speedboats flying across the tops of the waves like matchsticks.
The wave left as suddenly as it came. Ten minutes later the men who had been looking at the damage to their boats, which were now well inland, started racing along the shore, waving their arms frantically and yelling, “It’s coming in again!”
Like many others, 23-year-old Melawati, a lady from Indonesia, was caught in the flood without any warning. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii sent an alert quickly to twenty-six countries, including Indonesia, but it struggled to reach the right people with the alert.
“We sent an alert within fifteen minutes, but we don’t have any contacts in our address book for anybody in that particular part of the world,” said Charles McCreery, director of the Center.
After the wave had smashed inland, the water running back out steadily pulled Melawati out to sea. She saw the uprooted trunk of a palm tree in the waters. About 100,000 of her countrymen had already died, but she clung to this tree for five days and survived by drinking rain water. What did she think about as she clung to the tree under the hot sun? All she could watch was the shoreline fading in the distance and far-off boats sailing on past her.
As Melawati drifted farther out to sea by the hour, a tuna-fishing vessel sailing far offshore, one hundred miles from Melawati’s home, spotted somebody waving to them from a floating object. They were amazed to find Melawati sitting on the palm tree, alive even though she was slightly hurt.
Can you imagine the joy Melawati felt as the fishing vessel came to rescue her! She was so helpless - she had no food, no way back to shore, no phone on which to call for help, and no hope.
Like Melawati, we have been swept away, not by water but by our sins. Like lost sheep we have gone our own way, doing just whatever we want. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:66All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)). Perhaps we have rarely thought about God and about our need to repent and turn to Him to be saved.
We are just as helpless and hopeless as Melawati was. We could never save ourselves, could never wash away our stain of sin, could never open our blinded eyes to see. This is why the Bible says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). God knows that He is our only hope. As we drift away day after day, He is calling us, reminding us that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). He came purposely to be our rescuer.
When the fishing vessel came over to rescue Melawati, she joyfully and gladly accepted their rescue offer and lived to tell her story. Will you accept God’s offer to have your sins washed away by the blood of His dear Son that was shed on Calvary’s cross? If you will listen and believe, you will have the privilege of joyfully telling others of your rescue and the everlasting life you have been given.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
ML-04/24/2005