rescue

My family went to St. Simons on vacation this summer and got to see this one and her little sister enjoy the beach. The condo we were stayed in had a pool that we spent some time at too. While we were playing in the pool one day, there was another family there that had a little boy several years older than Madelyn. Of course, he seemed much more interesting than us adults. His dad kept throwing him in the pool, he would scream and laugh, and swim over to his dad to do it again. Madelyn, who loves imaginative play, decided she wanted to go "rescue" him.

Well, being catapulted into a swimming pool over and over is tons more fun than playing with a 2 year old girl to this little boy, so needless to say, he wasn't paying her much attention. Her mom kept saying, "Madelyn, I don't think he wants to be rescued." But she kept swimming over there, insisting, "I want to rescue him, I want to rescue him!"

As I thought back over this scenario, I thought about how much this parallels our relationship with Christ. We go through life, working and playing and worrying and stressing and all the while Jesus is saying, "I want to rescue you!" But, instead of allowing Him to, we want to keep playing our own game, with our own rules, our own way. We either just ignore Him, or worse, say outright, "I don't want to be rescued." But just like Madelyn, He is persistent, constantly pursuing us, whispering to us, "I want to rescue you...I want to rescue you..." And all He wants us to do is ask...

He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them. He feels pity for the weak and the needy, and he will rescue them. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him. Psalm 72: 12-14