[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 30/Aug/2020]
Two young refugees from Sudan have just tried to paddle across the Channel to England in a small inflatable boat with two shovels as oars. The tiny boat capsized and one of them managed to swim ashore in France, but the other, a 16 year old boy, was washed ashore having drowned. This is another tragic loss of life in the ongoing attempts by refugees to come to the UK.
Now that we have the opportunity to go on holiday, there have been warnings recently in this country about the danger of holidaymakers, particularly children, being swept out to sea in small inflatables by wind and current. When we were on holiday in South Wales, Barbara and I took our two children for a row in a four man inflatable. It was a beautiful sheltered bay, but two boys of about 8 or 9 went out too far and were being swept out to sea by the wind. There was no way I could, or even dare, to try and reach them, but they decided to jump into the sea and swim to the beach. The older boy kept going and reached the shore, but the younger one stopped swimming and cried out for help. I managed to reach him and we pulled him out of the water, then the five of us rowed back to the beach. When we got there the two boys ran off and it was apparent that they were there on their own. What a blessing that I was in the right place at the right time otherwise the younger boy would have drowned.
On a boat trip to Caldy Island a few days later, the boatman told me how he had picked up an inflatable a mile or two offshore and found a terrified boy cowering in the bottom of the boat. When he got to land he took the boy to his holiday home and his parents had not even noticed that he was missing.
On a completely different subject, during the lockdown Barbara’s sister, Joan, was seriously ill and taken to hospital in Harlow, Essex. By “chance” our son-in-law’s sister was in charge of the ward where she was taken for assessment, and because she knew Joan well she was able to tell the doctors that she was normally a strong, bright, elderly lady. Although expected to die, during the five weeks Joan was in hospital she regularly visited her, arranged video calls and even prayed for her, (Joan’s not a Christian). By a miracle Joan was healed and we were then able to break lockdown and look after her at home.
These are three examples that I believe that God arranged for someone to be in the right place at the right time. There are several examples of this happening in the Bible. I can only share one important occasion in the book of Esther. The wicked nobleman, Haman, planned to kill all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire. Queen Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, encouraged her to risk her own life to save their people. He said, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). They were both in the right time and place. Esther was able to turn the tables on Haman and save all the Jews from slaughter. The Jewish people still remember that to this day in the Feast of Purim.
We may not have the opportunity to save a whole race or even one individual life, but we can be sure that there will be times when God puts us in a place and at a time when only we can help or encourage that person who is in need. We may not feel able to do it but if we are faithful to God in this way, then He will certainly be faithful to help us to do it.
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Contributed by Michael Goble; © the Author
