In 1805 lands west of the Mississippi River were largely unmapped. They were part of a wilderness without roads or permanent towns, where giant herds of buffalo roamed, and where grizzly bears and mountain lions hunted.
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, organized the Lewis and Clark Expedition to travel across this vast expanse, map it out, and also to report on the land forms, plant life and animal life. Another part of their mission was to make friendly relations with the native tribes.
The Lewis and Clark expedition consisted of several brave men including a French-Canadian interpreter named Charbonneau and his young wife, Sacagawea, who had given birth to a baby boy just a few months before joining the expedition.
The expedition began in St. Louis. They spent the first winter in a camp near a Mandan village. This village was near the banks of the Missouri River. The men in the expedition had built pirogues, or dugout canoes out of large trees. Men in these pirogues would paddle against the flow of the river. Sometimes if the wind was blowing in the right direction they could spread a small sail. Paddling was back-breaking work. Working from dusk to dawn, the men could only make an average of 15 miles a day.
The expedition was spread out along a bend in the river when suddenly a squall, or a small wind and rain storm, hit. High winds from the squall tipped a pirogue over. Water rushed into it. Supplies carried in the canoe were washed overboard. Among these supplies were the journals full of information that Lewis and Clark had carefully collected.
Charbonneau and three other men panicked and feared for their lives. Only Sacagawea kept her wits about her. When she saw the journals go overboard and sink in the Missouri, she marked the spot in her mind using landmarks from the nearby shore.
She unstrapped her baby boy from her back and laid him in the canoe, and then she dove into the Missouri. She swam to the spot she marked in her mind and dove. Almost miraculously she recovered the journals. I say “miraculously” because the current of the river might have carried them away, and the visibility in the flowing muddy water was very poor.
Lewis and Clark were both extremely thankful their journals had been saved. They knew they owed their recovery to the quick thinking and quick acting of Sacagawea. She had saved the day.
To honor the memory, almost 200 years after the event, the U.S. Treasury issued a Sacagawea one-dollar coin in the year 2000. On the coin is a portrait of Sacagawea holding her baby boy.
Sacagawea deserved this honor for the quick thinking that saved the journals. Do you know who else deserves all the praise and honor of every human heart? It is the Lord Jesus Christ who left the glories of heaven and came to this earth. He came to earth seeking people lost in sin. “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.”
Sacagawea dove into the muddy waters of the Missouri River to retrieve the precious journals. The Lord Jesus went all the way down into death to retrieve people who had sinned, in order to bring them back to God. The blood He shed at the cross has the power to wash away the sins of all those who believe and to make them clean and ready for heaven. If it weren’t for the Lord Jesus dying for people, they would have all remained lost and carried away from God by the current of sin forever.
The Lord Jesus will retrieve every soul who trusts Him from the murky depths of sin. He will redeem them and make them fit to enjoy the presence of God forever. This the Lord Jesus has done for countless others, and He will also do it for you if you call out to Him in faith. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:1313For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)).
He is waiting for you to call out to Him in faith.