The powerful new motorboat was the pride of Bill's heart. He could hardly wait to put her in the water and "open her up." Lost in a dream of the thrills ahead, he started out for his first day on the water with his family.
As they ran down the river, he made one stop to set his wife and the picnic basket ashore at a park. Then with his two boys he roared on out into the bay and open water.
It was great! Wind and spray blew in their faces; a white wake spread behind them—this was really living!
Far out now, beyond the sight of any watcher on shore, Bill revved the motor once more to squeeze the last bit of speed from it. He got the last drop of gasoline instead. There was a sputtering and a coughing and then silence as the big motor stopped. In the sudden quiet the boat slowed, lost way, and soon was rocking gently in the water. Little waves slapped the sides of the boat, a gull cried overhead, and they became conscious of the hot sun beating down on their heads.
Frantically Bill worked at the motor, but there was no gas. In his rush to get going he had neglected to fill a spare gas can.
There was no other boat in sight; they had left them all behind. Perhaps they could call for help, but a quick search of the boat showed that they had no emergency flares. There was no ship-to-shore radio, either. They had not even shipped an oar with which they might have made a little headway. The picnic basket, with food and water, had been left behind at the park, and acute thirst soon added to their discomfort.
All day they rocked and sweltered in the sun; all night they drifted, chilled now and miserable. Not until the next morning did the Coast Guard find the little boat and bring it and three weary, blistered and dehydrated would-be sailors to shore.
Only a little forethought and preparation would have saved them from an experience that might well have proved fatal to all three. One can full of gasoline would have brought them back to land. How could they have been so foolish as to go out without it?
How much more foolish it is to go on as millions are doing every day, living their lives "as though there were no tomorrow," no eternity ahead, no day coming when they will leave the shores of this life and have to meet God—a God whom they have neglected and ignored. How much more foolish it is to make no preparation for that coming day!
When God has warned to "prepare to meet thy God," how foolish it is to ignore that warning. The Coast Guard rescued Bill and his boys, foolish though they were in all their unpreparedness, but there can be no rescue for anyone who goes out of this life without preparation for the next. "As the tree falls, so it shall lie"—no change, no hope, no way back to God.
2 Cor. 6:22(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2 Corinthians 6:2), "NOW is the accepted time... NOW is the day of salvation." There will never be another. When once this present day of grace has ended, there will never be another opportunity for the salvation of those who rejected—or merely neglected—God's offer of salvation.