| “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). |
| On July 9, 1960, a man named Jim Honeycutt offered to take Deanne Woodward, a girl of seventeen and her brother Roger, who was seven years old, for a boat ride on the Niagara River above the falls. Jim and their father worked together, and Deanne and Roger eagerly accepted. As they passed under the Grand Island Bridge, Roger asked to drive the boat, which had a small outboard motor. Suddenly the propeller struck a rock, broke the shear pin, and now they had no power! All Jim’s efforts with the oars were futile; they were carried swiftly towards the falls. They struck a large wave, and all three were thrown into the water. Roger and Deanne wore life jackets; Honeycutt had none. |
| Deanne managed to swim to shore and was pulled out of the river at the last minute by two men who saw her, and risked their own lives to reach out to her. She was only about fifteen feet (less than five meters) from the falls. Any of you who have visited Niagara Falls know what a thundering, massive falls it is. Totally awesome! Roger and Jim Honeycutt were carried over the falls. Jim did not survive, and his body was found several days later, but Roger landed below the falls in the whirlpool, still wearing his red life jacket. Miraculously he was unhurt except for a few bruises, and was picked up by the Maid of the Mist, from which they threw him a life ring. No human being had ever plunged over Niagara Falls with nothing but a life jacket and survived. It is doubtful that anyone else ever will. His experience was unique. |
| For the next twenty years, Roger kept asking himself why he and his sister had been spared from almost certain death. People would even tell him that someone must be watching over him, and that God had something special for him. |
| Twenty years later, in 1980, Roger attended a gospel meeting, and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as His Savior. His questions were finally answered! Ten years later in 1990 he came back to preach the gospel in Niagara Falls, telling people, “Something happened thirty years ago that was very, very special. I lived. Why? So that I could live again … so that others would come to the saving knowledge of Christ and have the gift of eternal life.” |
| Have you accepted God’s gift of eternal life, as Roger did? It was the Lord’s mercy that saved Roger and Deanne from being killed at Niagara Falls, and it was His mercy that saved him from going into a lost eternity. That same mercy is available to you too, if you are not saved. |
