Luke 15:6 (ESV)
And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and
his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that
was lost.’
I read a story about a female humpback whale who had
become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down
by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She
had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her
torso, and a line tugging in her mouth.
Thankfully, a fisherman spotted her just east of the
Farralone Islands near the Golden Gate and radioed an environmental group for
help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was
in such bad condition that the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle
her, a very dangerous proposition.
One slap of the enormous whale's tail could kill a
rescuer. Still, the brave rescuers worked for hours cutting her free. One guy
who was cutting the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the
whole time. Eventually, they were able to free her.
As soon as she became free, the divers say she began to
swim in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every
diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed gently around-she thanked them.
Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.
Let's take a lesson from this beautiful story. So often
we let the hurting in our churches and communities fall through the cracks,
never to be seen again. But it is a brave soul who gathers up an army of
rescuers to reach out to a suffering or hard to reach brother or sister and
rescue him or her from the binding entanglements of this world. Just as the
Lord has so mercifully reached out to us, we need to do the same. Whether it is
a gift, an invitation to a meal or a smile and a word of encouragement, let's
strive to reach out.
We need to be the first to initiate this kind of rescue
team for our brothers and sisters. Believe me, it will be just as beautiful and
rewarding too.
Dear Lord, help us reach out to the hurting people around
us so that we can show Your love to them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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