LOOKING TO THE CROSS

One cold early evening many years ago my wife Barbie and I
set out in our cabin cruiser boat for a picnic dinner
on South San Francisco Bay.

We waved to a college crew team
heading out for a practice row,
then proceeded down the channel toward the San Mateo Bridge.
The choppy water soon turned into huge waves.

At the drawbridge,
I signaled to the bridge tender to let us through.
He shook his head,
pointing to the whitecaps on the water ahead.
We were about to take our pitching craft home when,
in the distance near some mud flats,
we saw a ruby-colored light glowing,
shimmering in the shape of a cross.

Barbie and I were mesmerized.

We turned our craft in its direction.

It was irresponsible of me --
in shallow muddy water our engine might
suck up mud that can destroy it -- but still I felt compelled
to follow the cross.

Now mud was coming from the exhaust pipe,
and the temperature of our engine had risen
into the danger zone, but the light drew me on.

Then we came up to it,
only to find that the light was merely a buoy
reflecting the red sunset.
Barbie and I felt foolish;
we had actually risked our boat to chase a mirage.

"Look, the water is full of coconuts," Barbie said.

But they weren't coconuts at all;
they were the men from the rowing crew,
whose shell had crashed into the bridge and sunk.

One by one we pulled them aboard.
They had been in the water for over an hour.




Facing death, gulping the icy salt water,
they had come to a point of desperation
and had prayed together for rescue.
And that was when the cross began to shine for me.

Author Unknown
 

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Psalm 3:5-6

    "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Then said I, Here am I; send me."
Isaiah 6:8

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way,
and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
James 1:22-24, 27

He must turn from evil and do good;
       he must seek peace and pursue it.
    For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
       and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
   but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
1 Peter 3:11-12