In the days before Alaska was a state, I worked out of Anchorage as a fish warden. My job often included flying a small amphibious plane over the Pacific Ocean and the frozen northland. It was a dangerous job, and I was constantly asking the Lord Jesus to keep me safe.
On this particular day I took off with the plane heavily loaded with fuel oil. As I gained altitude the engine sounded rough. Not good, I thought. I wonder if I ought to go back. Since it had been a difficult takeoff because the plane was so heavy, I knew it would be impossible to land safely without using up quite a bit of my fuel. So I circled quite a few times to use up some of the fuel in my tanks.
As I circled and the plane grew lighter, the sound of the engine smoothed out. I decided to continue my flight. I checked the oil gauge and then started out over the ocean.
I hadn’t flown far when I heard a voice in my mind telling me to check the oil pressure. I checked the gauge again even though I had just done it. The pressure was falling fast! I’d have to make a landing.
In the few seconds I had left I radioed my position to the Coast Guard and brought the plane down on the rough water. How thankful I was for the inner warning voice and that I had lightened the plane earlier. It made the emergency, rough-water landing safer. I knew the Lord was with me in my desperate situation.
Soon a Coast Guard plane was in sight. The pilot spotted my plane and was circling overhead. But he signaled that he couldn’t land. The sea was too rough. He would send a boat.
My heart sank. It might take two hours for a boat to reach me from the Coast Guard station at Yakatat. How could I survive that long?
My plane was gradually drifting toward the rocks, and I thought of trying to swim over to them. But just when I’d made up my mind to go ahead, a sea lion lifted his head out of the water and roared at me. That quickly changed my mind. Instead, I clung to the plane trembling and cried to the Lord Jesus to save me. “In the day of my trouble I will call upon Thee: for Thou wilt answer me” (Psalm 86:77In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. (Psalm 86:7)).
As I prayed, the wind shifted enough to float the plane clear of the rocks, which would certainly have dashed it to pieces in the rough sea. Then I heard the unexpected roar of a plane directly above me.
I looked up. There flying overhead was one of the most dilapidated planes I’d ever seen. When the pilot brought it down on the water, it was spraying oil everywhere. And when I stepped from my plane onto this rescue plane, the fabric was so rotten my foot went right through it. But I was saved!
My rescuer told me he had heard my SOS call to the Coast Guard, and he was sure I couldn’t last until a boat reached me. He decided it was his job to come get me.
That was my second rescue.
Let me tell you about the first one. My Rescuer came all the way from heaven’s glory, because He knew there was no other way for me to be saved from the results of my sins. His name is Jesus. He cleansed me from every sin and gave me eternal life. And He wants to do the same for you. “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Revelation 1:55And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, (Revelation 1:5)). “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
Have you been rescued from your sins by the Lord Jesus?
ML-04/30/1995