A young lady named Marjorie got into the bright-yellow kayak at the edge of the Columbia River. It was the first warm day of spring, with temperatures in the mid-sixties. The blue of the wide river, the green of the flanking hills carpeted with coniferous trees, and the deep blue of the sky combined to make the surrounding scene look as pretty as a postcard.
Marjorie paddled the kayak to the middle of the river. She didn’t have much experience kayaking, so the current surprised her by its strength and speed. Not wanting to get too far away from where she launched the kayak, she used her paddle as a rudder and guided the kayak towards a timber piling or vertical log that was a hundred feet from the shore. She thought she could use the piling to keep the current from carrying her downstream. Her troubles began when the kayak hit the piling. Trapped between the piling and the current, the water rushed over the side of the kayak and quickly filled the little craft. Marjorie was just able to pull her legs out of it before it was sucked under the surface of the river and disappeared. She grabbed the creosote-treated piling and hung on for dear life. The river, full of recent snow melt, instantly chilled her to the bone. Wrapping her arms and legs around the piling, she shimmied up as high as she could to get out of the water.
Another kayaker saw Marjorie clinging to the piling and called 911. The emergency dispatcher knew exactly where the piling was located and contacted the sheriff’s department with the information. The dispatcher then called her own mother, an avid boater, who lived in a riverfront home near the site of the incident. The dispatcher’s mother paddled out in a rowboat and was able to bring the stranded kayaker back to shore. An officer from the sheriff’s department arrived a few minutes later in a patrol boat. The officer appraised the situation, and from his many experiences of boating accidents, he had this to say: “She is fortunate to be alive, pure and simple.”
“Fortunate to be alive, pure and simple,” is a saying that describes Marjorie’s incident, but it also can be applied to human beings in general. I would like to point out a number of truths about this saying so that you might latch onto them.
First of all, each one of us owes the fact that we have life to the truth that God is the great Preserver. The current of the river could have pulled Marjorie under, never to be seen again. Perhaps you can think of an incident when you nearly died. Have you ever thought that in your close call God might have been at work behind the scene preserving your life? Psalm 36:66Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. (Psalm 36:6) states this truth when it says, “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.” How fortunate that God moves behind the scenes to preserve souls alive. It just might be that He has preserved you alive because He wants you to come to know Him in an intimate way through His Son.
Second, all of us ought to feel tremendously fortunate because we are part of God’s creation. The world we live in is breathtakingly beautiful, and God intends for us to enjoy it. We are fortunate because every good thing, including our lives and all things necessary to support life, comes from Him. It is His goodness that causes Him to care for His creatures. “The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy” (Psalm 119:6464The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes. (Psalm 119:64)). To have life, to see His handiwork and to have the benefits of His mercy makes us incredibly fortunate indeed!
Finally, we are fortunate because as long as we are alive, we have the opportunity to bow our hearts and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. It is not enough to be alive to receive God’s best blessings in our lives. To receive His best blessings, we need to be “born again” or “born from above.” Souls are born again when they receive a new life. This makes it possible for them to know, love and understand God their Maker. Being born again is a gift sent from the Father above so that sinners on this earth can be changed and made ready to spend eternity in heaven. This new life is given to them the moment they believe in the Son of God. It is by believing on the Lord Jesus that we receive God’s richest blessing — the gift of eternal life. It is God’s good pleasure to give this gift to all who put their faith in His dear Son, and He invites men and women everywhere to receive it. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)).
One lifetime is all any of us are given to make the all-important decision to trust Christ. As long as we are alive, there is hope that we will come to our senses and see our great need of the Saviour. Once this life is over, it will be forever too late to believe on Christ. Souls who die without Christ will disappear into the miserable regions of hell where they will be separated from God’s goodness forever. They will have only themselves to blame for refusing God’s grace.
No one knows for sure if they will be given another day to live. Life is, at best, uncertain. Therefore, the wise thing to do is to trust in the Lord Jesus before it becomes forever too late. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:11Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)).
Why wait another day before you take Christ as your Saviour? He alone has the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. Pure and simple, trusting Christ will be the best thing that you ever will do. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life” (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47)).