When a father learned his five-year-old daughter had fallen overboard from the fourth deck of the cruise ship they were on, he plunged into the ocean forty feet below to rescue her. He held on to his daughter while treading water for more than ten minutes before the ship’s rescue team brought them safely back on board. As soon as the father heard his daughter was in trouble, he risked everything to save her.
All throughout the Bible, we read how our heavenly Father’s love compelled Him to give His all to rescue us from drowning in our sin. God first declared His divine rescue plan in the garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent and sinned, God cursed the serpent and said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). This verse refers to the spiritual battle between Satan and God’s children and how at His appointed time God would send His Son, Jesus, to redeem the world through His Son’s sacrificial death and resurrection.
God has been ready to save us long before we realized we needed His help. Whenever we feel like we’re sinking in an ocean of sin, we can be encouraged that Jesus is our divine lifeline. We can cry out to Him. He will rescue and restore us.
When have you experienced God’s forgiveness? How does it feel knowing He loves you?
Heavenly Father, thank You for loving and rescuing me.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the consequences were both immediate and future. Immediately, they lost access to the garden and the presence of the Creator (Genesis 3:23-24), and eventually, they’d physically die. In between, the life that they’d enjoyed in a paradise created specifically for them would now be tainted with pain, loss, frustration, and failure (vv. 16-19). This is what makes Jesus’ death and resurrection so vital. Only by what Christ did on our behalf can we be rescued and restored to the heavenly Father and have a hope of life after death (Romans 8:1-4). Life continues to be difficult in this world that’s been broken by sin. But when we cry out to Jesus, He’ll rescue us. And one day, God “will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).
