Church, are you aware God was talking to us through the cave rescue of the boys and their coach in Thailand.
The boys ventured into the darkness and when danger threatened they retreated further into the blackness to a desolate place where they thought they would be safe but in fact was devoid of life and they would, eventually, have died there.
The rescuers were persistent in their efforts, overcoming great obstacles, to locate the boys and when they did they fed them small amounts of food, tended to their cuts and abrasions and encouraged them that help was at hand.
The thousands of people in the rescue team were from all over the world, the bible says in God’s kingdom are neither Jew nor Greek, male or female, all are equal in God’s sight. They all had a specific job to do and they did it to the best of their ability. It seemed many volunteers needed no corporate instructions, they saw a need and provided for that need.
The boys had nothing to do to be saved except believe in their saviours. They were unconscious while being escorted out of the darkness of the cave, they didn’t swim or need to learn to scuba dive they just believed and trusted and so were saved.
Religion turned up in the form of a famous guy who tried to get the team to use a completely inappropriate form of salvation and became quite verbally abusive when rejected.
The Australian doctor/cave diver who was described by some as ‘being the lynchpin of the entire operation which could not have happened without him’ was strangely absent from the ABC’s Four Corners interviews. It was he who gained the boys trust and sedated them to enable their rescue. He seems to represent the Holy Spirit who is often mentioned but never seen and is the one who administers Grace to us and enables us to be saved merely by believing.
Dare I suggest there was even a Jesus representative present in the form of the Thai navy seal who gave his life while delivering life giving oxygen as a part of the rescue.
Because of the selfless devotion to their individual jobs the thousands involved became participants of the most wonderful rescue ever undertaken in the modern world. Nobody counted the cost, they just gave until the rescue was completed.
Church we all have a job to do, what that is is up to our commander to tell us individually and if we listen and obey we will be a part of the most amazing rescue this world has ever seen.
