Standing in their boat on Saturday, June 18, 2011, the two American policemen could hear the roar of the great waterfalls on one side and the clatter of the helicopter just overhead. The Canadian, Shawn Black of Niagara Parks Police, had just dropped off two rescue harnesses which they were now eagerly donning.
I’m sure they carefully adjusted each strap and buckle, checking again and then once more to be sure. They would have been fools to discard the harnesses and ask instead for a book about swimming in fast currents. They were perched just 270 meters from the edge of Niagara Falls.
Swimming lessons, or other self-help therapies, were not about to interest them as they realized their helplessness. The rescue would come from above and not from within the confines of their boat, gripped by the current and scarcely held by a rope and anchor.
They would be rescued only by doing what the rescuer told them to do. Everything that was needed was provided — the compassion, skill, helicopter power, and the harness. They only needed the resolve to obey. If they neglected the harness, then all the skill and compassion in the world could not prevent their inevitable short plunge to eternity.
I am reminded of a certain king who made a marriage for his son. So begins the story recorded in Matthew 22, which is in the Bible. Everything was provided for each guest; they only had to show up at the free banquet. In the story, each person had an excuse; they had other things to do, and so each one neglected the kind offer of the king and, in so doing, dishonored his son.
The Lord intended that we should learn from His story about the complete provision that God has made for the needs of a person’s soul through the gospel message. Pardon, peace, a living hope in this world, and glory and joy in the next are all set before us as a rich provision.
A renowned preacher said, “The gospel is an offer of food to the hungry, of joy to the mourner, of a home to the outcast, and of a loving friend to the lost. It is glad tidings.”
He also says, “In the gospel, we learn that the Father is ready to love and welcome, the Son is ready to forgive and wash the guilt away, the Spirit is ready to enlighten and renew, angels are ready to rejoice over the returning sinner, grace is waiting to assist him, and the Bible is ready to instruct him. Only one thing is needful, and that is — the sinner must be ready and willing to come.”
Have you ever thought about putting on God’s rescue harness? The rescue of our soul comes from above, from the Lord Jesus Christ who came into our world to rescue sinners.
It’s too late once the slight cord holding the tired anchor of life lets go. That’s why the Bible says, “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).