It had all started as a fun adventure. Marie Peary and her mother had boarded a ship, named the Windward, to search for her father, Robert E. Peary. He had been away from his family for two years, as he tried again to reach the North Pole, and his family missed him. The Windward was taking supplies to the great explorer, so Marie and her mother hoped to see him.
At their first stop, they found that Peary had gone farther north, to Payer Harbor. They picked up some of his supplies, as he had left instructions to do, and also many of the Inuit men of that area who wanted to go along to hunt musk ox. One of those who joined the ship was Marie’s good friend Koodlooktoo, a teenage boy. At Payer Harbor they once again met with disappointment; Marie’s father had gone on still farther north. The ship’s captain explained to Marie and her mother that it was getting too late in the season to wait any longer for his return and that they would need to return to Newfoundland. But that very night a blizzard came and the wind blew the ship onto rocks. By the time the ship was repaired and ready to sail, it was too late ... the ice had frozen them into the harbor. Marie didn’t mind. She loved the Arctic where she had been born, and she loved adventure.
One day while they were there, Marie, who was seven, and Koodlooktoo, who was 15, set out on a four-mile walk across the frozen bay to Cape Sabine. The Windward’s captain wanted to know the condition of the ice at the Cape, so he could make plans when they could sail. The two friends walked across the ice in the bright moonlight of the long Arctic night and had their lunch on a hill overlooking the Cape. They could see that the ice to the north was still unbroken. But when they turned to head back to the ship, to their alarm they found a deep, wide channel where the ice they had just crossed had broken up. They would have to find a new
way home!
The detour journey back was much longer than the morning’s walk had been. Wearily they struggled on, sometimes up to their waists in snow, sometimes slipping as they went up icy hills. Marie begged Koodlooktoo to stop for a rest, but he wisely refused, knowing that if they fell asleep in that cold, they could easily freeze to death.
Finally, from a hilltop, Marie saw the welcome lights of the ship shining through the darkness. What a welcome sight! In her exhaustion, she sat down and started to slide down what looked to her like a smooth ride down the hill to home, in spite of warnings from Koodlooktoo that the slope was actually a glacier that could have a dangerous cliff.
Koodlooktoo saw his little friend hurtling to possible death, and he acted as only a very brave and very loving friend would. He threw himself down the icy slope, whizzing past Marie. Kicking his legs and flailing his arms, he found his footing when he was nearly on the edge of a cliff. As Marie slid wildly toward him, he reached out and caught her before she went over the edge.
I wonder ... have you been warned that you are on your way to a place of danger? If you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are on a dangerous road, the road to hell where you will be punished for your sins. “God is light” (1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)) and He cannot allow any sin into His holy presence. But thankfully 1 John 4:1616And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:16) tells us that “God is love.” In God’s great love, He has made a way to save you from that eternal punishment through the death of His own Son.
What love it took for Koodlooktoo to risk his life to save his young friend! The Bible says, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)). But there is a much greater love than Koodlooktoo’s. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus, gave His life to save you from eternal punishment. He went to the cross of Calvary, where God placed upon Him all the sins of those who would believe on Him. God then punished His Son instead of us, so that He can now forgive us. You need to make this gift of forgiveness and eternal life your own by simply believing God. Won’t you believe His wonderful love and be free from the penalty of your sins?
Memory Verse: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.” John 15:1313Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)-14
Messages of God’s Love 9/24/2023