Daddy to the rescue!

When you cross deep rivers,

I will be with you,

and you won't drown.

When you walk through fire,

you won't be burned

or scorched by the flames.--Isaiah 43:2

I was still on the phone notifying the electric company about my power outage when I heard the rumble of a truck in my driveway.  I stuck my head out the door.

“You’ve got a fire out here!” my father called to me.

“What! A fire! Should I call 911?”

“No, I think I can put it out!” he shouted over his shoulder as he trotted off toward the front of my house.

I ran after him and rounded the corner, gasping at what I saw—tongues of flames licking the dry grass, traveling toward the pasture in one direction and toward my house in the other.

“No!” I shouted, “There may be a live wire on the ground!”

But my father didn’t stop.  He hurried toward the fire and began stomping the fierce flames, one by one, extinguishing them with his heavy boots, until nothing remained but wisps of smoke and a charred outline on my lawn.

Two weeks later the charred outline still remains


“If you hadn’t come when you did…” I shuddered to think of what could have happened.

How did he know?

That wasn’t the first time my father showed up at the right time.  Years ago, when my sisters and I were teenagers, we begged to borrow the family station wagon to go to the movies one night. Despite their hesitation, my parents' eventually relented while warning about the poor condition of our dirt driveway, more like a mile-and-a-half long mudpuddle. We cheered when we managed to make our way out to the state road that evening, but on the return trip that was a different story. Our tires sunk down deep in the quagmire and refused to go any farther—still a mile away from our house. Without cell phones then, we had no way of contacting our parents.  Too afraid to walk, we had no choice but stay put in pitch black darkness, thick woods surrounding, not a neighbor nearby. We waited and waited until we heard the rumble of a truck.  How did he know?

Also there was the time when my brother Michael, just a toddler, sat next to Daddy on the river dock, fishing pole in hand…until he felt a tug on the other end.  Daddy helped him reel in the fish and remove it from the hook.  But soon the squirmy perch wriggled its way out of Michael’s clutch and flapped back into the water. To Daddy’s surprise, Michael jumped in after it! Down he sunk till his towhead disappeared beneath the murky flow. Without hesitation, Daddy jumped in behind him and within seconds returned to the surface, Michael in hand. How had he jumped into just the right spot?  How did he know?

By nature, fathers are protectors—and rescuers.  But sometimes they fall short.

The bible says, “The Lord is like a father to His children” (Psalm 103:13).  And the Lord himself says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name” (Psalm 91:14).

We can trust the Lord to protect us, to rescue us in our time of need—even when our earthly fathers don’t show up.  God will never leave us, nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6).  He is with His children at all times—He sees all. And He always shows up at the right time at the right spot.

King David said,

“I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.” (Psalm 40:1-2)

No matter if we’re struck by the elements or stuck in the muck of our own poor choices, God will be there when we cry.  And sometimes He sends earthly fathers as His rescue squad.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for Your loving protection—for rescuing me when I cry—and even when I don’t. Amen.