"Lord Jesus Christ!" This blessed and living name was wrung from Mary Garner's infidel lips, as she stood on the seashore watching her sister's helpless form battling with the pitiless waves of the receding tide.
Mary and her sister were spending their vacation at the beach. One day they went in bathing and evidently had not heeded the hour, for the tide, unnoticed by them, had begun to recede. Mary's sister had gone back into the water for one more swim, after all the other bathers had left. Now to her dismay she was being borne out to sea by the power of the waves.
Mary stood on the shore helplessly watching her sister when she became aware of her plight. She could not swim herself, so dared not venture into the rolling surf. No one else was near to call on for help. As Mary stood there alone, helpless, and terror-stricken, a verse she had often heard her Christian parents quote flashed into her hard, unbelieving heart: "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Acts 2:2121And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21). Like lightning came the thought, "now I will see if there is a God." In helpless agony of mind, with no one to turn to, she cried aloud, "Lord Jesus Christ! Lord Jesus Christ! If there is a living God, save my sister.”
Almost immediately a great wave came rolling in to the shore, bearing on its crest her beloved sister, washing her up onto the sands almost at her feet. Great indeed was her joy and thankfulness at receiving her sister back safely again, out of the jaws of death; but her spirit bowed and her heart broke as she saw herself as a lost sinner in the presence of a living God. To Him she confessed her folly and the sinfulness of her infidel thoughts. She sought and found pardon and peace through believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who had died for her on the cross.
Oh, unbelieving heart, if you only knew the love and grace in the heart of God for you, you would never turn from Him in indifference or fear. Oh, come to Him now in the day of His grace and you will find Him the loving, seeking Savior, ready to pardon. Beware of putting Him off until you meet Him as your Judge at the Great White Throne. There you will find no mercy, no hope, no time for repentance. Now you are as helplessly tossed on the waves of sin as Mary's sister was on the waves of the sea, and none but God can save you. Remember that "Whosoever (that means you) shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”