Wayne Link was sleeping alone in his motel room on the second floor of the Cedarmont Motel right next to the Big Thompson River. It was the evening of July 31, 1976, when the big flash flood surged down the canyon.
A little after nine o’clock Wayne was awakened by the roaring of the river which was louder than usual. The electric lights wouldn’t go on, so Wayne grabbed his flashlight.
“It was pitch dark, no light to be seen anywhere,” he recalled. Pointing his flashlight into the night, he saw water running level with the floor of the motel’s second story. A car’s roof was lodged against the motel.
Wayne ran to the rear of his room and kicked out a window. Pushing himself through the opening, he started climbing up the side of the canyon. Within a minute or two the whole motel was swept away by the surging flood.
Wayne, along with some 25 others from the motel and a nearby restaurant climbed the steep canyon wall to its top. They built a roaring fire and, sheltered from the rain under a large tarpaulin, they waited out the night. The next morning the water had gone down so they climbed back into the canyon where rescuers found them.
Wayne had been “just in time.” Had he been two minutes later in escaping from the doomed motel, he would have lost his life in the raging torrent. How solemn to think that all of us are but a step from eternity!
The terrible blows of judgment that fell on Egypt long ago, the fire from heaven that burned up Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain, the flood in Noah’s day, and many solemn happenings since, are warnings of “judgment to come,” for this world has rejected and put to death the Son of God on the cross.
However, while God hates sin, He loves the sinner. For “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).
Those who climbed the mountain side of the Big Thompson River that dark night found a refuge from the raging flood waters below. Those who trust in Jesus find in Him a refuge from the coming storm; indeed, He is the only place of safety for the sinner. Have you fled to Him for refuge? God says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31).
ML-05/15/1977