The mountains around Bellingham, Washington, hold the world’s record for snowfall. One year, nearly one hundred feet of snow fell on Mount Baker. All this snowfall made the area a beautiful place in winter.
One day a young man named Michael York strapped on a pair of snowshoes. He was going to explore some of that vast area. The snowshoes made it possible for him to walk long distances easily in the deep snow. He hiked for several hours, his soul just thrilled with all the beauty around him.
Then...he started to return. He thought he was on the right trail, but when the heavy cloak of night fell around him, he slowly came to the conclusion that he was lost. He hadn’t brought the proper gear to sleep out in the cold, nor did he bring any food. The cold stabbed him with icy fingers, and hunger gnawed at his stomach. For the life of him, he didn’t know which way to turn to escape the wilderness. He desperately hoped someone was searching for him.
On the fourth day of being lost, a spark of hope came to him; he thought of a plan that might help him to be rescued. He climbed partway up the slope of the mountainside to where there was a big clearing of nothing but snow. Then carefully he trudged through the snow, spelling out, in giant letters, the word “HELP.”
The letters were written so large that they caught the attention of a border patrol helicopter pilot. He notified a rescue team of the location of the hiker and he was airlifted off the mountain by helicopter. The plan worked!
Do you know that the infinite, eternal God is searching for lost souls? In His great love He is seeking souls to come to Him and be saved. His eyes don’t miss a thing: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place.”
No one has to write giant letters in the snow or do anything to attract God’s attention. He knows exactly where one stands, and He also knows that, apart from the Lord Jesus, we are lost in sin. Because we are lost in sin, we desperately need HELP. By ourselves we don’t have a clue how to return to God. Sinners who never come to Christ will spend eternity lost in hell. Sin has weakened our hearts, impaired our vision, drained our strength, and puffed up our pride so that we could never find our way back to God by ourselves. When it comes to trying to find God in our own strength, “we grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men” (Isa. 59:1010We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. (Isaiah 59:10)).
But praise God, He has not left us to ourselves. He knew we were lost and in a hopeless condition, and He had the one perfect remedy. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” The Lord Jesus left the glories of heaven and came to earth seeking lost sinners. In His life He perfectly revealed God’s love in all He said and did. In His death and resurrection He made the way lost sinners can return to God. Through Him alone, a sinner can receive all the help needed. He has healing for the sin-sick soul and salvation for the lost. It is His joy to bring the wanderers home.