I have heard stories of men and women who have accepted the Lord Jesus while lying on a sick-bed, and I have heard stories of boys and girls who have been saved at Sunday school. But this is the only story that I have ever heard of a man who was saved at the bottom of the sea.
Perhaps you have never seen a diver. Before he goes down to the boom of the sea, he puts on a very strange suit, and wears a large helmet with windows in the front. It is a very dangerous way to make a living and one that I certainly would not choose for myself.
Mr. Barker had been a diver for a good number of years, and although his occupation was so dangerous, he seemed to be absolutely careless about the fact that he might someday go down to the bottom of the sea for the very last time, and open his eyes in eternity.
One day, as he was groping along through the blackness beneath the waves, in search of a lost ship, he said to himself, “They tell me that God is everywhere. I don’t believe that He can be down here at the bottom of the sea.”
No sooner had this passed through his mind, when he spied something white lying at his feet. He reached down and picked it up. It was a piece of paper held fast between the shells of an oyster. He held it in front of the window in his helmet and read these words: “Thou God seest me.” Genesis 16:1313And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? (Genesis 16:13).
You may well imagine that this filled him with fear, for he realized that although the eye of man could not find him in the darkness of the sea, yet the eye of God was upon him.
He had often heard the gospel before, and as he suddenly realized that the eye of God was upon him, he remembered a verse that he had heard as a young man. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22). How good it was to realize that the very God who was looking down through the waves upon him, was asking him to look up and accept the Saviour that His love had provided!
Without even waiting to come up to the surface, he quietly bowed his head and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
Then he brought the oyster shell and the tract to the surface with him. Since that day, he has often shown them to many another man, and told how God met him and saved his soul at the bottom of the sea.
Dear reader, are you conscious of the fact that the eye of God is upon you? You may be reading this paper in the quiet of a hospital room, but wherever you may be, the eye of God is upon you. He knows all about you and He has this message of love for your soul: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).
ML 08/26/1956