FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS…
Over the weekend I watched a docu-drama called “The Rescue”. Maybe you remember the story – when back in 2018, twelve members of a Vietnamese soccer team and their coach were all trapped in a cave that was filling up with water. Nine days after their parents called the police to report them missing, the boys were found deep in the cave nearly 2.5 miles from the entrance.
Because of the conditions, and the fact that a round trip to
the boys and back took over 11 hours, there were three options for getting them
out:
- Teach the boys to swim out with scuba gear
- Leave them with enough supplies to hopefully make it until the monsoon rains stopped approximately 4 months later – meanwhile, hoping the rising waters didn’t drown them all.
- Sedate the boys and drag them out.
In the end, it was the third option that was chosen. The problem was – who was going to do it?!?!
If you do a little Google research on CAVE DIVING you’ll
learn that some experts estimate as few as 75 people globally can call
themselves professional cave divers. In the case of the
Vietnamese cave, Navy Seals – often considered ELITE divers, were originally
the ones sought for the task, however, they did not have the skills necessary
to rescue the boys. The divers that did,
were a handful of civilian men who HAD to get it right.
These men, who as children were often the ones picked last
for teams, bullied by their classmates, and rejected by society, had each gravitated
to cave diving as a way to prove themselves, and to get away from it all…
As I watched the story unfold I thought of the Bible story of
Esther.
You see Esther was a beautiful young girl who lived about
2,300 years ago in the time of King Xerxes.
When Xerxes sought a wife, Esther was taken from her Uncle Modecai’s
home to the palace where she was made Queen.
And though she was Jewish, this was something the King did not know.
At the palace, King Xerxes employed a man named Haman as one
of his advisors. Haman was an evil man
who, after being “snubbed” by Esther’s uncle, encouraged Xerxes to issue an
order to kill all of the Jewish people on the thirteenth day of the twelfth
month. When Mordecai learned of this, he
told Esther that she should talk to the king and get him to reconsider. However, Esther was reluctant, because
approaching the king without being summoned, was punishable by death.
Mordecai then said, “Do not think that because you are in the
King’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief
and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your
father’s family will perish. And who
knows that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.”
(Esther 3:13-14)
That thought – that we all have things that we were BORN to
do, is the one that ties these two stories together.
The Bible tells us that God created each of us with a purpose. And I think in the case of the cave divers - once young boys the “world” made to feel “less than,” perhaps “The Rescue” was
it. No one else could have gone the 2.5
miles into the cave, sedated each child and coach trapped inside, then carried
them back through cold murky water, rushing currents and impossibly narrow
passageways – but that’s exactly what they did.
And 17 days after they went missing – all 13 people were home safe.
Know that your life has purpose, and ask God to show you what
that might be.
For we are
God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10
Comments
Post a Comment