Sunday, October 10, 2010

Rescue of Trapped Chilean Miners an Allegory of God's Love

I wept this morning when I heard the news that drillers had finally reached the trapped Chilean miners with an escape tunnel.

As I was driving along in my car, thinking about this, I was overcome with the truth that I was once like these miners, only I was trapped in sin. Nearly half a mile underground for 66 days these 33 miners were waiting. After the mine collapsed around them, cutting off their escape route, someone from above decided to launch a rescue mission. Working day and night drillers on the surface began to cut through the volcanic rock and stone until they had finally formed a bore hole large enough to send down a video probe. To their amazement, 2050 feet below the surface, they found that 33 miners were still alive.

To me this was a great allegory of what God did when he sent his own son, Jesus Christ, into the world to rescue us from our sin. Mankind was trapped without a sure hope until that time. God saw the problem of sin, how it separated us from him, and he came up with a rescue plan. He loved us so much that he sent his only son into the world to save us, and not only to save us but to give us every lasting life as well. Jesus spoke these words, recorded in the gospel of John, 3:16.

It's an interesting fact to note that the miners learned to turn to prayer to cope with their ordeal. The eldest Chilean miner lead daily prayers at an alter they had prepared. When all else is taken from you, faith becomes your most important ally.

I'm thankful to God that he rescued me and he will continue to until that day when I meet him in the sky. Some think the sins that have them trapped are too large, that God is no longer interested. The truth of the matter is, you have been running from God's love, you think you have hidden yourself from him. I believe that there are no circumstances, trials or sins that are too big for God to drill through, and there is none too far gone or so lost that God can not reach. He is love, and love seeks to save the lost. Love takes the initiative towards reconciliation. The rescue of these Chilean miners is the perfect allegory of this spiritual truth.