The Precious Breath.

As I lay here in the hospital struggling with getting a breath and filling my lung with oxygen it reminded me of a rescue that happen a few years back.


Craig Brian Larson tells a story of a rescue the world watched as three gray whales, icebound off Point Barrow, Alaska, floated battered and bloody, gasping for breath at a hole in the ice. Their only hope: somehow to be transported five miles past the ice pack to open sea. Rescuers began cutting a string of breathing holes about 20 yards apart in the six-inch-thick ice.

"For eight days they coaxed the whales from one hole to the next, mile after mile. Along the way, one of the trio vanished and was presumed dead; but finally, with the help of Russian icebreakers, the whales Putu and Siku swam to freedom.

"In a way, worship is a string of breathing holes the Lord provides His people. Battered and bruised in a world frozen over with greed, selfishness and hatred, we rise for air in church, a place to breathe again, to be loved and encouraged, until that day when the Lord forever shatters the ice cap."



The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.


- Genesis 2:7 (New International Version)

Dear Lord we thank you for the breath that you gave to each of us. We thank you for each breath that you allow us to take. In Jesus’ name. Amen.