David and Daryl had a favorite fishing spot, a small island in the Teton River in Idaho. Though they had to wade waist-deep through the water to get there, still it was a place they especially loved, and the willow trees at one end of the island made it more interesting.
On July 5, 1976, the morning the Teton Dam broke, the two boys had gone on a little fishing trip on the island. Daryl carried Gus, the pup, across to the island where they arrived about 10:30, and for an hour and a half the boys had a great time fishing.
In the meantime just six miles upstream, the Teton Dam had sprung a bad leak. In an amazingly short time one whole side of the dam collapsed, and a huge wall of water 100 feet high, thundered down the canyon and into the valley toward the unsuspecting boys. Lewis Hart, a local pilot, heard news of the disaster and took off immediately in his plane to alert anyone who might be in danger. From 15 miles away Lewis could see the floods surging down the canyon. Flying low over the island, he saw the two boys fishing, unconcerned.
Lewis flew over low again and again waving at them and yelling at the top of his voice. Then he waggled his wings, but the boys kept on fishing, unimpressed. They thought he was just showing off.
But the fatal waters were coming. The boys ignored the warning, even though in ignorance. And this makes us think of many today who ignore the warnings of coming judgment. Some are willingly ignorant and so let the warnings of the Word of God go unheeded. But the judgment of God against sin is surely coming regardless of whether men heed the warning message or not.
One minute the little island was dry; the next it was unexplainably under water. The boys climbed into the willow trees. Then Daryl turned and saw a 20-foot wall of mud and water, thick with logs and uprooted trees surging towards them at about 20 miles per hour. Realizing that the willows were no safe place, he yelled to David, “Jump in". Daryl plunged into the river, but David thought the willows were safer and just clung more tightly to his tree. Over them both went the wall of water. Daryl was crushed between the logs, and somehow he made his way to the surface, and catching hold of a cottonwood tree, he climbed into the fork, and a few hours later he was rescued.
David, however, could not be found. He thought he was safe in the willow tree, but it was no place of safety. The next day they found his body, still in the same clump of willows. They had proved to be an unsafe refuge.
How many boys and girls, and older folks too, are like David. They hope they have found a safe refuge for their souls, but they are trusting in their own thoughts and good deeds, their acts of charity and other things. Some think the church will save them at the end; some think because their parents are Christians that they are safe. But none of these are a safe refuge for the soul. Scripture says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Prov. 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12).
There is no salvation apart from that which God Himself has prided. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, who died upon the cross for sinners is God’s way to be saved. We must be saved God’s way, or not saved at all.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
ML-10/09/1977