RESCUED FROM DARKNESS

Last week, the entire world held their breath as the capsule designed to rescue the 33 trapped Chilean miners made its initial descent into the 24-inch shaft drilled through hard rock to the chamber where the miners had survived for 69 days underground. As I watched with the rest of the world and followed the updates throughout the day, I wondered to myself what these miners must have experienced over the course of their time below ground.

Can you imagine the despair, the hopelessness they felt after the shock of the initial cave-in, when they realized they were trapped in a small chamber one-half mile below the surface of the earth with no hope of rescue? Can you think of what it must have felt like to live underground in total darkness for 69 days?

Can you imagine the glimmer of hope that they felt as contact with the surface was made and they realized, hope beyond hope, that there was a chance of rescue? And, what it must have been like when the rescue capsule finally made its way to their remote chamber, bringing each of them up to the surface and into the arms of their loved ones?

I can. And, I suspect you can, if you really think about it. You see, while we may not all have experienced being trapped underground for two months, we have all experienced being trapped in darkness, a darkness of our own making, a darkness that came to us through the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. A darkness of the heart.

The Bible calls this Sin, and tells us that all of us -- you, me, and everyone else that ever walked on this planet -- have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In other words, from the moment of our conception, we found ourselves in the same state as those Chilean miners, trapped in a world of darkness with no hope of rescue. Separated from the world of light and from the God of light through our Sin and our sin nature.

But, just when all hope seemed lost, a glimmer of light was given. The God of all creation spoke to us through His Word and promised that help was coming, that a Savior was being sent who would come to bring us all into the light once again. And, just like a rescue capsule coming from the surface of the earth into the depths of a dark chamber below ground, Jesus left the world of light and became a man and descended into the very heart of darkness for one reason -- to save us from ourselves and to rescue us from the darkness of our own hearts.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came to save the world by giving His body and His blood for us, by dying on the cross in our place, and by being raised from the dead on the third day to prove His victory over sin and death and the darkness of the heart. All we have to do to be rescued is to reach out and accept His offer of salvation, step into the rescue capsule, and be transported out of this world and into the world of light. It's as simple as that. Accept and believe and trust that Jesus has already paved the path and laid out the way for us. Don't stay in the darkness any longer, but come into the light that He offers.