Home from the Sea

Think a minute…Every Friday at sunset the old man came to the beach carrying a bucket filled with shrimp. Soon you could hear the distant calls of birds.

In no time the sky was filled with sea gulls rushing to their weekly dinner meeting with the elderly gentleman. For an hour the old man would stand on the beach surrounded by white birds flapping their wings and feasting until their bellies were full and his bucket was empty. 

The man’s name was Eddie Rickenbacker. During World War II he was called Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. He was an airplane pilot who flew important missions over the Pacific Ocean. In October of 1942 his plane was reported lost at sea.

Somewhere over the South Pacific, Eddie and his crew had drifted beyond the reach of radio communication. After they escaped a crash-landing in the water, there they were: eight men in the middle of the world’s largest sea. 

For nearly a month, Captain Eddie and his fellow soldiers fought the water, storms and burning sun to stay alive. They spent sleepless nights hanging on to their rafts while sharks rammed them from all directions. But their greatest enemy was starvation. They ran out of food after eight days on the open ocean.

Starving and feeling hopeless, Captain Eddie and his men prayed together asking God to send help. Then Eddie fell asleep. He was awakened by something that landed on his head: a seagull. This was amazing since seagulls almost never fly that far out to sea, hundreds of miles from land.

Captain Eddie was able to catch the bird, and it became the food that saved his life and the lives of his men. Eddie never forgot it either! For the rest of his life, every Friday evening at sunset, you could see this old man on the beach feeding the birds in memory of that one bird God sent to save his life. 

Maybe God saved your life and you have forgotten. In fact, He has saved your life more times than you will ever know. But He keeps doing it for a reason: to give you a little more time to ask Him to save your eternal life.

Once and for all, won’t you ask Him to forgive you for all of your sins and wrong living? Then ask Him to take charge of your heart and life, so you can start living His great plan for you—both now and forever. Just think a minute…

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