You've all seen that commercial for Life Alert, right? It's the one about that poor old lady who has fallen in her home and has no one to help her. I hate those commercials - probably because it rings too close for comfort. Did I tell y'all about the time I tried an alternative method for cleaning my shower? It hurts my pride to have to disclose this, but it had gotten almost impossible for me to thoroughly clean the lower half of my shower (old age ain't for sissies), so I decided to sit on one of those heavy plastic "milk crates". And it worked perfectly - until I tried to get up with two bad knees. Oh my goodness gracious. There I was on a milk crate in the shower floor in the middle of nowhere and no one around for miles. I needed to be rescued! I had plenty of time to think about the Life Alert commercial; I had just become that old lady who could not get up. Obviously I did manage to get off the shower floor, but it wasn't pretty and it took a lot of work. Please note: That very year for Christmas my beloved gave me one of those fancy brush-spinning shower scrubbers. He loves it so much that I "let" him use it now. Problem solved.
Did you ever have to be rescued? It seems like I find myself in that predicament quite often. When my boys were only 3 and 5, I took them with me to get my mom and bring her home with me to attend my graduation from nursing school. It was only a 2 1/2 hour trip; I didn't even make the boys wear shoes because we were just gonna get mom and head straight back home. So the boys had no shoes; I was wearing pajama pants (way before it was fashionable). And halfway through Little Rock I had a flat tire. Even if it had been in a safe area (which it wasn't), we couldn't walk anywhere because the boys had no shoes and I was essentially wearing pajamas and it was at least 100 degrees outside. We sat on the side of the road for well over an hour before a policeman took pity on me and stopped. (This was long before cell phones had made their debut.) He called a tow truck and left. About another hour later, the tow truck showed up, fixed my flat, and charged me enough that I could have bought a new set of tires. Not only did I lose my dignity, but I pretty much gave away our grocery money for the next two weeks. But I was so completely grateful and happy to be rescued. (I can now change a tire under any condition with my eyes closed - as long as my bad knees hold out.)
Today I watched a 20/20 documentary about a young lady who set out alone to camp her way through the Grand Canyon and then on to Yellowstone. Somewhere along the way, her GPS gave her bad directions; she not only was lost, but she also ran out of gas in the middle of the desert. She was stranded for several days before she was finally rescued. Her pure joy and thankfulness when she talked about seeing the rescue helicopter brought tears to my eyes. All the pain of her stranded days vanished and her whole focus shifted to her rescuers. It was life changing.
That pure relief and ecstatic joy of being rescued is like nothing you've ever known . . . until you have been rescued by Jesus Christ.
I tried to find all the right words to say about the amazing love and forgiveness of Jesus, but I just felt led to leave you with the verses below, which say it all, so much better than I ever could. Do you have a situation in your life that you need to be rescued from?
"What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."
Luke: 15:4-7
(Look closely at this picture. The little lamb didn't have to try to figure out how to get out of danger;
all he had to do was let Jesus come to him. Pretty simple, huh?)
Thank you so very much for reading my words.
I hope in some way that my blogs have been a blessing to you.
And as always, may God bless you bunches!