“Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters…” (Psalms 144:7)

There are some stories in my life that may appear unbelievable, yet I share this true event to bring glory to the name of the Lord. The picture above was taken during this very trip that my story goes on to tell you about. I asked those who experienced this remarkable day with me to validate this story, because I certainly wanted to capture this event as it truly occurred. It was confirmed by three others —this is God’s story:

Years ago, a family planned vacation took us down to a remote and deserted beach in Mexico. It was a great place to spend a week or two. A few concerns one might have is that there were no shopping malls, no grocery stores, no people around for miles, and no lifeguards. But the one great thing going for us was we were all together on a beautiful beach.

One early morning, my wife Marla, my brother Henry, and our friend Joanie decided to take a quick dip in the ocean before breakfast. We got Autumn, our then, three year old daughter, and headed to the water. The ocean seemed a bit choppy, but we were on vacation…we wanted to spend every minute enjoying it. As Marla and Autumn made their way into the water, the waves were hitting them pretty hard and Autumn did not want any part of the fun we all thought we were going to have. Marla said she was taking Autumn back to the tents with the rest of the family and that she would meet us out in the water. The three of us kept chatting and floating around. Marla was on her way back and started to swim out to where we were. As she remembers it, she couldn’t touch the ocean floor, but assumed since everyone was taller than her it must be fine. What happened next was anything but fine.

Within minutes we became keenly aware that we were fighting against a very strong current…we were in a riptide. My brother and I were in close proximity and he asked me, “Where are the girls?” As I looked around for them, I noticed they were quite a distance out in front of us, but they weren’t together. All I could see was my wife had a look of panic on her face…distress written all over it. She was barely able to keep afloat. At the same time, we began to hear Joanie calling out for help. My brother said, “Go help Marla, and I’ll help Joanie.”

By the time I reached Marla, she had already taken in lots of ocean water and it was obvious she was beginning to lose consciousness. I remember hanging on to her with everything I had in an attempt to keep her head above water. I kept saying to her, “Marla, hang on. Don’t let go of me. We are going to make it. Take a deep breath. Marla, you’ve got to take a deep breath!” I don’t recall how much time passed, but I was now beginning to sense my own body unable to fight against the unmerciful riptide. It didn’t let up as it continued to sweep us further out into deep waters.

In my despair, I began to hear my brother crying out to Jesus. I kept hearing him say, “Jesus, save us! Jesus, save us!” Instantly, I too felt a passion to cry out in a loud voice to Jesus. Together our voices echoed out to the Lord of Glory who is strong and mighty. Only He could save us from the grip of this current. As I called out to His holy name one last time, I clearly remember kissing my wife and saying to her, “I love you…we’ll be together always (in the Lord).” With fatigue quickly overtaking my body, I knew I couldn’t keep us up much longer. I held my love close to my heart believing these were the last moments together on this planet. What occurred next was like a scene from a movie employing all the special effects…better yet, it was like a miraculous biblical account ripped from the pages of the Bible. There are no words to fully express what we experienced in these next few minutes.

As we sank below the surface, my feet touched a sandy, bottom floor – it shouldn’t have been there! The current had swept us out so far that we no longer had sights on the shore from our vantage point. But God is faithful. “Abba, Father” heard our frantic and despairing cries to Him for mercy (Romans 8:15). Immediately, I had a new surge of life vibrate through my body. I held my wife as tight as I could and with everything I had, I kicked off that sandbar and pushed us upward. As soon as we surfaced, I told Marla to take a deep breath and down I went again, my feet firmly finding that piece of ocean floor. Every time I went down, I kicked us back and up and yelled to my brother, “Sandbar, sandbar!” When I went down again, I opened my eyes as my feet touched the bottom. To the left and to the right of this narrow sandbar, I saw only pitch-black darkness. To miss this strip of God’s saving grace would mean putting us back into the strong currents of the deep ocean. This narrow strip was our only passageway back to shore. We became like a bouncing buoy, emerging and submerging, yet slowly making our way to shore. Miraculously, the Lord reached out the same sandbar to Henry and Joanie.

Finally, all four of us were dragging our feeble and exhausted bodies to shore, gasping for air and choking on sea water. We fell to our knees without a word spoken and we each wept loudly to God who just saved us from the clutches of death. We stretched out our arms and joined each other as we thanked the Living God who heard our desperate cries. Those cries of mercy were breathlessly changed to great praise and worship.

That night we heard of a few swimmers who got caught in that terrible riptide and they didn’t make it. We never told anyone about this experience until years later. It was so overpowering and emotional that we could not talk about it even amongst ourselves. Through the night my wife and I wept before the Lord as we wrestled with such an experience that nearly took our lives and possibly the life of our precious daughter, Autumn. To this day, every time I share this testimony of God’s mercy and His answer to our supplication that morning, I lose my breath. I am overwhelmed. There are no words to describe our thankfulness to the God who saved us that day out in the waters of Mexico.

It was shortly after this episode when I read again the story of the blind beggar who sat by the side of the road hoping to find mercy and healing from Jesus who was passing by. It’s one of those stories that takes you right where this blind beggar sits, crying out to Jesus with all the voice he could muster, his only hope, “Son of David, have mercy me” (Mark 10:48-54). This biblical account comes alive to me as I reminisce on our near tragedy in the ocean that morning and how our voices cried out with everything we had, just as the man cried out to Jesus.

Have you ever been in such a dire situation that there appears to be no way out? Have you ever felt the only way to get out is to literally scream out to the Lord for mercy and for Him to save you? This is where the four of us found ourselves that day; only Jesus could save us, there was no other Savior. It’s in these storms of life where God takes your experiences and uses them to teach you the true preciousness of life and how quickly it can be taken when you least expect it (James 4:14)!

When facing experiences beyond our control, even death, our Lord God is right there to help us. Will you trust in your own strength? Or, in your time of anguish, will you turn to the One who created the universe (Colossians 1:15-17), has power over nature (Mark 4:39-41), and victory over death (I Corinthians 15:54-56)? Caught in that riptide brought a moment of fear…I had become paralyzed. But my focus was restored with the mention of His name.

As I look back, I am grateful to my brother for his heart’s cry to the Lord that day. With our feet touching where sand shouldn’t have been, an immediate renewed vision and strength in our limbs came over us. What seemed to be our watery grave became our healing waters. Let us trust in Him who is “able to help us” in any storm of life (Hebrews 4:15-16). Even when facing death, He is able to save us, or if His will deems, He may lead us into His presence of eternal life (Philippians 1:21-26)!