Three friends, all energetic men in their early twenties, pulled up to Altaire Campground on the Elwha River. They unloaded two brightly colored kayaks, one red and the other yellow, from the top of the van and carried them to the river’s edge. Two of them, Evan and Tyson, donned life jackets, sat themselves down in the small openings of the narrow boats, and snapped the cockpit skirts around their waists. With a wave to their friend and a flick of their paddles they propelled themselves out into the current of the river.
The third friend, Josh, didn’t like the water as much as his two buddies. He had come along to hike the trail next to the river. He had a digital camera on a strap around his neck. The blue-gray water of the river, surrounded by forested hillsides, is home to all sorts of birds and wildlife, and Josh planned to get some great photos.
The Elwha flows down from the mountains. Fed by snowmelt, it flows at a brisk rate but all was going well until, coming around a bend, the pair in the kayaks saw a giant uprooted tree blocking a large portion of the river. The tree was several feet in circumference and over a hundred feet long. The fallen tree was redirecting a large flow of the river, creating treacherous currents.
If Evan and Tyson had had more experience kayaking on a river, they might have foreseen the danger and avoided it, but all their prior experience kayaking had been on lakes and the protected waters of Port Angeles Harbor. They were steering their kayaks to pass around the tip of the giant log when the current caught them in its power and quickly swept them towards the log. They thrust their paddles into the water to break away from the current, but the flow of water was too strong.
With a heart-stopping thud, Tyson and his kayak rammed the tree broadside. The point of Ethan’s kayak hit Tyson’s, causing Ethan to spin away downriver. Tyson, trapped against the log by the current, lost his balance in the collision. The relentless flow of water piled up on top of his small craft. An enormous flow of water also ran downward under the tree. It was drawing the kayak beneath the surface. Tyson reached out and grabbed a small limb of the tree.
The kayak was ripped away from him and disappeared beneath the downward surge of water. Holding on to the limb with one hand, most of Tyson’s body was plunged beneath the surface. The same relentless current which had pulled his kayak under was now pulling him. He knew that if he let go, the current would pull him under the surface and he would drown. For long minutes he clung to the limb, fighting for his life. With his free hand he tried to claw the bark of the tree to pull himself up, but it was hopeless. Abruptly the limb partially broke, plunging him even deeper into the water. Just when it seemed he would lose the battle against the current, a hand reached out and grabbed his arm.
It was Josh. He saw his friend’s danger and ran out on top of the fallen log to help. Lying flat on his stomach, he reached out his arm as far as he could and grabbed his friend’s arm just when he was about to sink. The force of the river was so great that Josh “felt like he was hanging on to a thousand pounds of dead weight with one hand!”
Deep fatigue set into his arm as he strained with all his strength, and he cried out with pain as his arm was pulled from its shoulder socket-yet he held on. Soon Evan was able to beach his kayak and run out on the giant tree to help. Together he and Josh managed to get Tyson out of the water and on top of the tree. The trio lay on their backs on the broad tree, panting for breath. Downriver they saw the yellow kayak as it finally resurfaced. It had been underwater for the entire ordeal of several minutes.
If Josh had gotten to Tyson a few seconds late, or if Josh’s arm had been shorter, Tyson might have been sucked under the logjam and been drowned. He owes his life to his friend’s strength and perseverance. There is One, mighty in power, who is reaching out to lost souls. No matter how deeply anyone has fallen into sin or how strong the current is that is pulling them down to destruction, the arm of the Lord is strong enough and long enough to reach down and save that one. God can save the most wretched of sinners because His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, died for them.
At Calvary God “showed strength with His arm” and made a way for destitute, ungodly sinners to be saved. Because Christ died on the cross, the good news of the gospel can go out to all the world telling them of a free salvation.
Sadly, not everyone who hears the good news of a Savior dying for the sins of the world will believe it. Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet, asked, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” It is sad because only those who believe the gospel will receive eternal life. Those who reject it will be cast out of God’s presence for all eternity into the darkness of hell. Those who reject the gospel will learn by awful firsthand experience that “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:3131It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:31)).
Do you feel like sin has caught you in its swirling whirlpool and is dragging you under? Like there is no hope of recovery? Like life is unbearable? Like you have given yourself over to hell, and to hell you must go? Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of His work on the cross, He can save you. His hand is not shortened, but can surely reach you where you are and lay tight hold of you and bring you to Himself.
The Lord Jesus didn’t give His life for us because we loved Him. He gave His life for us because He loved us. He knew our sins, shame, unworthiness, coldness and hardness, and still He loved us and gave His life on the cross that we might be saved. If He treated us as we deserve, there is not a man or woman who would escape the destruction of hell. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, can set us free.
Won’t you come as a lost sinner to the Lord Jesus? No matter how black your heart is, His blood can wash it white as snow. If you come to the Savior, you may know for yourself the wonderful truth contained in the incredible verse in Deuteronomy 33:2727The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. (Deuteronomy 33:27): “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Those are the only arms strong enough to keep you safe for time and eternity.