I want to tell you about a brave boy who risked his life to save his father. Brave Carl lived with his father and mother m a little cottage by the sea. His father was a fisherman, and Carl, who was a strong big boy, used to go with his father, and help him row the boat.
One day Carl stayed at home to help mend the nets. and salt the fish. The wind was fair, and he watched his father start out over the sunny sea. When the father reached his usual place of fishing he tried with no success to catch salmon. In the afternoon he made for a ledge of rocks which stretched far out into the ocean, and there he tied his boat, and again started to fish. He knew that when the tide came up the rocks would be covered with water, but he planned to use his faithful boat to get away.
All this time his wife and Carl were hard at work with the nets, when suddenly they noticed dark clouds gathering above. Sea birds went screaming aloft in the air and the rolling waves grew darker and darker.
Carl seized his cap and hurried away to the cliffs to see if his father’s boat was near. Long and anxiously he looked, while the rising wind roared around him and almost lifted him off his feet. At last he saw the well-known boat coming to shore, and joyfully ran to tell his mother. Hurrying together to the beach, they found that the boat was empty! As a great wave lifted it high and dry upon the sands, they ran. to look at it and found but a few fish, a line, and a net were all that it contained, Carl’s father was not there!
Carl noticed that the rope was not coiled in its usual place but dragging loosely in the sand, and at once guessed, that his father had, landed somewhere and that the boat had been broken away by the force of the waves. In a moment, he dragged the boat back to the surging waves and leaped in. With a prayer to God to help him, he palled with all his might on the oars, and started out for the rocks. He had often been out there with his father, and he guessed that he might be stranded. No doubt the Lord directed Carl and helped him, for He delights to answer us when we cry to Him for help.
After a terrible struggle, Carl drew near to the well-known rocks, and there, as he had hoped, he saw his father standing. He was standing up to his waist in the water, and clasping hard to a solid bit of rock, just waiting for the waves to go over his head. He had not noticed the approach of the storm, and when at last he ran to jump into the boat, he had found it gone! He also had cried to God to send deliverance, and God heard him. Quickly the exhausted father sprang into the boat, crying, “My brave boy! Thank God, oh, thank God for this!” Very soon, Carl and his father were back safe at their cottage, and there, with Carl’s mother, they thanked the Lord with tears for His deliverance.
Carl willingly risked his young life to save his dear father. But there is One who loved. His enemies enough to send His own Son to die for them. Yes, God loved you and me so much. that He sent the Lord Jesus, who went to the cross and gave up His own life, that He might bring us to God. Have you ever thanked the Lord Jesus for rescuing you from hell?
ML 10/08/1950