Stranded on the highest mountain on earth. Buried beneath the rubble of a shattered hotel.
After an earthquake rocked the mountain kingdom of Nepal, thousands lost their lives. Many more found their world, their homes, their lives wiped away.
And some who survived the quake faced the prospect of dying in the aftermath. Like the Everest climbers, trapped on the mountain by massive avalanches. Or the 27-year-old man, lying amidst the stench of dead bodies, trapped for 82 hours under mountains of concrete.
One six-letter word. That was the difference between life and death for the men on the mountain and the man in the rubble.
Rescue. The "hope" word we keep hearing in the otherwise heartbreaking news from Nepal.
Eighteen climbers died when part of Everest collapsed on their base camp. The 140 surviving climbers found their escape route impossibly blocked by fallen rocks. And as time passed, the food and water was running out.
And then the choppers came. One after another. Somehow landing on that mountain and saving those climbers, two at a time.
Then there was young Rishi. Running out of hope and life beneath that collapsed hotel. Then, after ten hours of digging through concrete, the rescuers broke through. Rishi is alive...the climbers are alive. Because the rescuers came.
Hope in Nepal depended on - as it is in so many disasters - a rescuer from above.
And that's where the news intersects my life. Because hope for me also depended on a rescuer from above. At the spiritual crossroads of my life.
I was trapped in a place where I would have died. Except my Rescuer came. Jesus. The One called "Savior" by millions around the world. Savior. Rescuer.
In fact, the Bible says, "Jesus gave His life for our sins...in order to rescue us" (Galatians 1:3). Not to start a religion. Not to be an example or a teacher. But to rescue us. At the cost of His life.
Because I - and a world of folks like me - was facing spiritual death for dethroning God in my life. Letting Him run the universe while I ran me. His Book makes the outcome unmistakable. "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 3:18). Here, a life without meaning. Hereafter, an eternity without hope.
But, thank God, the Rescuer came! From above. To a cross. To die for my sin so I don't have to. Amazingly, "He loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
Then He blasted out of His grave three days later. To reach into my rubble. To save me from certain spiritual death.
He reached for me. I grabbed His nail-scarred hand. I'm safe. Forever.