Rescue

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement.

Rescue

            Every period in history carries dangers. In the eighteen hundreds the prevalence of ship transportation made accidents at sea commonplace. The contour of the sea floor by New Jersey made its shores particularly hazardous. For a time the state had the unfortunate distinction of seeing more ship wrecks along it’s shore than any state along the East Coast.

 

Distressed by the numerous fatalities when large ships wrecked, one New Jersey man, William A.Newell, succeeded in passing legislation to establish Life Saving Stations. Beginning with eight stations in New Jersey, eventually Rescue Houses dotted the coast from Maine to Florida, staffed by volunteers. The first buildings were simple huts which contained a surf-riding boat to ride through the waves to the shipwreck, a gun to shoot a life line to a foundering ship, and a breeches buoy to haul survivors ashore in what was similar to a large pair of jeans attached to the life line and pulled to land.

 

As well as physical dangers peculiar to a historical period, every era in history carries threats to the  mental and emotional health of its people. Whatever the stresses and hazards of our day, we have a Life Saving Station that doesn’t require legislature or money to fund. Prayer gives us immediate access to a Rescue House staffed by God, Himself.  He knows when to send a surf-riding boat to rescue us. Every time we shoot a prayer to our God because we are foundering, we access a life line which He uses to pull us to safety. As frightening as it was to ride a breeches buoy from a ship wrecked vessel, when we pray we are climbing into His calming presence for a ride to the shore of His protection.