Early one fall morning, a resident on Big Island, Nova Scotia, looked out over the beach near his home. He was used to seeing the waves lapping on the shore and hearing the cry of sea gulls. But this day there was something unexpected and unusual about what he saw. There were three, big, gray lumps on the beach, as well as a smaller one. These had definitely not been there the night before. Since high tide had been early in the morning at 6:00, perhaps something had been washed in by the waves? A closer check revealed three adult dolphins and a baby dolphin, and all were alive and trapped on the black mud of the beach!
Perhaps the dolphins had been chasing smelts, which are small, silvery fish that dolphins like to eat. Maybe the school of smelts had headed towards shallow water, and the large dolphins, in chasing them, had simply followed. But now the dolphins were in serious trouble. The tide had gone out, leaving these four big animals beached on the soft, black mud. All their frantic efforts to get back to open water were not getting them anywhere. The dolphins could breathe air through their blowholes, so they were not in danger of suffocating. But it was really the size of the animals that was a problem.
The Lord has made dolphins to live and to swim in ocean water, which supports their heavy weight. Even the baby dolphin weighed about two hundred pounds, and the three full-grown dolphins each weighed close to four hundred pounds! This was no problem in the open sea, but now these mammals were on land. Without water to support them, their weight threatened to crush and damage their organs. Also, the animals were becoming very stressed as they flailed around, and one of them even began vomiting.
What trouble had come from chasing those little fish! Sometimes what seems very harmless leads to serious results. Even one little lie or an angry word can get a boy or girl into serious trouble. It is so easy to follow your friends and do what is wrong.
Each one of us is a sinner. The Bible warns that “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction” (Matthew 7:1313Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: (Matthew 7:13)). Destruction is ahead for sinners, and boys and girls with sin on their hearts are in more trouble than those beached dolphins!
One of the island people placed an anxious call to the Department of Fisheries, and conservation officers came to the beach. But rescuing the dolphins would not be an easy job - the mud was just too soft. When the men walked on it, they would sink. Before they could even reach the dolphins, they had to bring wooden pallets to make a walkway over the mud! The rescuers were fighting against time, along with freezing temperatures and snow flurries. The conservation officers, the local fire department and residents all worked anxiously together for two hours. How much longer could the dolphins last?
The men made a big tarpaulin sling and slid it under one of the dolphins. “All right, let’s all pull!” someone shouted, and about a dozen people began to pull on the tarp. Working together, they were able to pull the dolphin towards a waiting all-terrain vehicle that was hitched to a trailer. They loaded the first dolphin onto the trailer and went back for another. One by one the dolphins were driven to another spot on the beach where they could be set free in water. There conservation officer Craig McDonald waded into the chilly, gray water of the Northumberland Strait to try to guide the released dolphins. They were disoriented at first, but finally they began to swim around and seemed to be recovering from their ordeal. The tide was coming in quickly, bringing deeper water, and the rescuers were relieved and happy. They expected that the four dolphins would soon rejoin their dolphin family in the open sea.
What a relief this must have been for the dolphins, to be taken from soft, black mud and placed once more in salt water. The baby dolphin needed rescue just as much as the big ones. Many boys and girls are equally stuck and helpless in their sins, just like men and women. In the Bible, David said that the Lord had brought him up from the “miry clay.” This did not mean that David was stuck in black mud, like those dolphins. But David knew that his sins had put him in great danger. He cried to the Lord for help. We read David’s words in Psalm 51:77Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. (Psalm 51:7), “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” The Lord Jesus, who made us, wants to rescue us from our sins and bring us to a place of safety. For the dolphins, safety lay in the deep, cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean where they could live for up to twenty years. But the Lord Jesus wants to forgive our sins and make us safe forever! He did not share this rescue work with others. He had to be forsaken of God and suffer alone on the cross and die alone. But now He invites you to come to Him: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:1818Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)). Will you let Him rescue you from your sins?
Whatever you write,
though in haste or with heed,
Write nothing
you would not like Jesus to read.
Whatever you say,
in a whisper or clear,
Say nothing
you would not like Jesus to hear.
ML-05/22/2005