Dramatic rescue (1) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2025

But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.
1 Samuel 20:3

Dramatic rescue (1)
November 28, 1951, 2:00 pm. A heavy storm whips across the North Sea. The Teeswood, a coastal freighter, leaves the English coast and sets course for Emden. Although the steamer dates from 1915, it has been retrofitted with modern equipment. The 15 men on board are used to storms. They know it will be an uncomfortable journey, but none of them is worried at first. Their own legs help against the lurching of the ship, waterproof clothing against the wet, and warm underwear against the cold.

6:20 pm: a good four hours later. The Teeswood is slammed with tremendous force onto a sandbank off Borkum. The ship groans and moans as if its backbone is being broken. The sailors send out an SOS continuously. They have no doubt that their signals will be heard and passed on. But whether a rescue is even possible in such a storm, whether a lifeboat can even set sail, is doubtful.

At 2 pm, everything was still in perfect order; by 6:20 pm, lives are suddenly in danger almost without any hope of survival. A catastrophic change had occurred – as we sometimes experience in our own lives: we go to the hospital for an examination and feel healthy, and two hours later our world has collapsed; we start our holiday full of anticipation and a little later are grateful to have survived an accident.

The men at that time sent out an SOS and hoped for the help of a lifeboat. Do you also know such a place of refuge today? Do you know Him who said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psalm 50:15)?

(to be continued tomorrow)

Today’s reading: Hosea 6:1-11 · James 3:1-12