Psalm 9:1 (ESV)
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount
all of your wonderful deeds.
It is gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old
broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his
death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a
large bucket of shrimp. The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would
feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October, 1942, Captain Eddie
Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to
General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea. But there was an unexpected detour which
would hurl Captain Eddie into the most harrowing adventure of his life.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress
became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men
ditched their plane in the ocean...For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his
companions would fight the water, and the weather, and the scorching sun. They
spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts. The
largest raft was nine by five. The biggest shark...ten feet long.
But of all their enemies at sea, one proved most
formidable: starvation. Eight days out, their rations were long gone or
destroyed by the salt water. It would take a miracle to sustain them. And a
miracle occurred. In Captain Eddie's own words, "Cherry," that was
the B- 17 pilot, Captain William Cherry, "read the service that afternoon,
and we finished with a prayer for deliverance and a hymn of praise. There was
some talk, but it tapered off in the oppressive heat. With my hat pulled down
over my eyes to keep out some of the glare, I dozed off."
Now this is still Captian Rickenbacker
talking..."Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I
don't know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word,
but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the
expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant
food...if I could catch it."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Captain Eddie
caught the gull. Its flesh was eaten. Its intestines were used for bait to
catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because a lone
sea gull, uncharacteristically hundreds of miles from land, offered itself as a
sacrifice. You know that Captain Eddie made it.
And now you also know...that he never forgot. Because
every Friday evening, about sunset...on a lonely stretch along the eastern
Florida seacoast...you could see an old man walking...white-haired,
bushy-eyebrowed, slightly bent. His bucket filled with shrimp was to feed the
gulls...to remember that one which, on a day long past, gave itself without a
struggle...like manna in the wilderness.
Dear Lord, we thank You for the way you take care of each
of us. Help us to have the gratitude and be thankful for each things. In The Name
of Jesus, Amen.
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