All was silent except for the steady purring of the single-engine plane. Overhead, the high clouds looked like ripples of sand formed by the wind on a beach. A few thousand feet beneath the plane the blue surface of Lake Michigan was still and smooth. No small boats were on the lake this late in December, at least none which the pilot and his friend with him could see.
It gave the pilot, Rick, a strange feeling to realize that in all the miles of space around him, his plane was the only thing making a sound. It seemed odd that it could be so quiet only a short distance from one of the world’s largest and busiest cities, Chicago, where the noise never stops.
The pilot’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the constant purr of the plane’s engine changed. There was a strange noise as if the engine were gasping for breath ... and then silence as it quit.
“What’s going on? What’s happened?” asked Mike, sitting in the seat next to Rick.
“I don’t know ... some kind of engine trouble,” Rick answered with a troubled look.
He ran his eyes across the instrument panel. The needle on the altimeter was steadily falling.
The plane was gliding. Rick set the necessary switches on the instrument panel to restart the plane’s engine. He pushed the starter button. Instead of the whir of a smoothly running engine he wanted so badly to hear, there was nothing.
“Tighten your shoulder and lap belt,” Rick told his friend. “We’re going to make a crash landing.”
“We can’t, Rick. The water is freezing! We can’t stay alive in water that cold.”
“What do you want me to do? The engine won’t start!” Rick explained sharply. “Try to stay calm; it’s our only chance.”
He turned the dial on the radio to the emergency frequency. He heard a radio bleep on his headset as the Coast Guard Station picked up their signal. “Do you hear me? Do you hear me?” Rick asked urgently into the microphone.
“Glenview Naval Air Station here. Please identify yourself. Over.”
“This is 9910 Delta ... Rick Hinckley ... in a single-engine plane. We’ve lost our power and we’re going down! Over.”
The radio operator at the station hit the emergency alert signal. Men nearby stopped what they were doing and rushed to the heliport.
“What is your location reading? Over.”
“Five or six miles directly east of the Sears Tower.”
“Rick!” Mike shouted, breaking into the radio conversation. “The water ... we’re going to crash into the water!”
Rick peered out the side window, trying to gauge the plane’s height. The mirror-like surface of the lake made it difficult, almost impossible to know just when they would hit.
“Brace yourself!” the pilot warned his friend.
The landing gear struck first. The wheels sliced through the water. With a crash the body of the plane slammed into the lake. Water hit the windshield in torrents. The two men inside lurched forward as the plane came to a halt. Their shoulder belts kept them from being thrown through the window. “You okay, Mike?”
“I think so ... shook up, that’s all.”
“Let’s get out of the plane before it sinks.”
The two men crawled out the doors onto the wings of the plane. Around them they could see nothing except empty sky and water. The plane was sinking bit by bit.
“Try not to move, Mike. It might help the plane float longer.”
They stood on the wings, waiting. “What’s that in the sky over there?” Rick suddenly asked.
“Looks like an orange and white helicopter. It’s the Coast Guard!”
The helicopter was soon hovering over them. A door in the side of the helicopter opened and a man was lowered in a basket by a cable to the two waiting men. They climbed in and a winch pulled them up into the helicopter.
Less than an hour after crashing they were in the Coast Guard Station drinking hot coffee with the three officers who had rescued them.
“Do you hear me?” is a question which might have to be asked to people, but never to the Lord Jesus. He hears everyone who calls to Him. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:11Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (Isaiah 59:1)). No matter what bad things you have done, He will hear you when you call on His name and He will save you. The Bible even says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:2424And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. (Isaiah 65:24)). His love is so great that He died on the cross long before we ever thought to call on Him. And now if you call on Him to save you, He will answer while you are still speaking to Him.
Have you called on the Lord Jesus to save you? He is listening.
Messages of God’s Love 8/4/2024