Rescued

our homeplace
the great Alabama ice storm
1960

"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen." (Galatians 1:3-5)

Have you ever been rescued, beloved? I have. Twice.

The first time, when an ice storm suddenly hit north Alabama on a March morning in 1960, my mother and I were stranded at our house atop Lookout Mountain with no electricity, which meant no water because we pumped ours from a well. 

School was dismissed, and my two brothers were taken to our grandparents' house on Forest Avenue in the valley. My daddy left the office, drove up the slippery mountainside in his 1950s-something jeep...

and pushed fallen trees out of the way to rescue Mama and me. 

I remember Daddy wrapping me in a blanket to protect me from the pounding ice and carrying almost-four-year-old me to the jeep. The three of us eventually made the dangerous trek down the mountain to Granddaddy and Grandmother Nance's house, where our family stayed for two weeks.

The second time, I was a fifth grader at the DeKalb Theater watching a Billy Graham film. At the conclusion, a young paster named Bobby Welch walked to the front of the theater and explained the Good News Gospel of Jesus Christ—the Son of God who came to earth, died on a cross in my place to pay for my sins, and rose again. 

I believed the Gospel. I trusted Jesus, and He rescued me from eternal death and evil. He made me alive in Him—a new creation, forgiven and washed clean from my past, present, and future sins.

Jesus, the One who died so you might live eternally, said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matthew 10:28)

Believe Him. Trust Him. Ask Jesus to rescue you, and He will.

"If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved [rescued]." (Romans 10:9)