“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” Colossians 1:13 (NIV)
Katharina Groene, solo hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, was on a death march. She’d hiked 2,500 miles, beginning at the Mexican border, now, in Washington State, she had only 150 miles to go. The problem she faced was snow storms with no snowshoes. Nancy Abell met her about a month earlier on the trail and Nancy urged her to take a break, get off the trail, and procure the necessary equipment. Katharina kept marching forward in pursuit of her goal.
Back home, Nancy couldn’t stop thinking about the lone hiker in the mountains. When forecasters predicted two feet of snow, she called the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, explaining that Groene might be in trouble.
Katharina was in trouble. She grew dehydrated and disoriented, suffered from frostbite, and kept falling and struggling to get back up. Hypothermia set in. Surrounded by evergreens that were sinking under the weight of snow, she screamed for help. There was no one to hear her.
Officers launched a search and rescue mission and soon found her. They said she likely would have died within twenty-four hours had they not found her.
Groene’s experience is a metaphor for all of humanity. We’ve been on a death march, going our own way, doing our own thing. We’ve ignored the goodness of God’s loving leadership. Instead of leaving us to our own devices, God launched a rescue mission. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas. God, himself, has come looking for us.
Now, that we’ve been rescued, we get to join God on his mission, searching for those hopelessly lost in great need. They’re all around us. How can we, as a family of missionary servants, join God in rescuing people, offering a life-saving relationship with his Son, Jesus? This is our mission, if we choose to accept it.
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