Comment by Harborough churches: God is searching to rescue people

Viewpoint by Revd Andy Giles, Associate Priest in the Harborough Anglican Team

Before I became a priest, I spent over 20 years working in outdoor education which is also how I met my wife. Way back in our days of dating we set out one day to climb Tryfan, a mountain in Snowdonia with two other friends. Our plan was to rock climb up the east side of the mountain and then walk back down.

It was a glorious day, but half way up as we stopped on a ledge for a short break, my wife managed to knock my rucksack and it tumbled down the cliff side. I set up an abseil and descended to retrieve my bag and then climb back to the ledge. This small accident cost us a lot of time so when we finally summited the mountain it was dark.

This was only a minor set back as we were all well equipped with head torches. However, it is much harder to navigate in the dark, especially as the fog came down and back then we were all quite inexperienced. We set off down the mountain. The path at the top was well defined. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before we realised we had lost the path.

Rather than try and find the path we decided to carry on down the gulley we were following. This quickly proved to be a bad idea as it grew steeper and steeper. Eventually we conceded that we could go no further, but none of us fancied climbing back up in the dark.

We figured the best thing to do would be to spend the night where we were knowing it would be much easier and safer to find our way in daylight. We were prepared for an unexpected cold and uncomfortable night on the mountainside.

Before too long, we saw a helicopter approaching and we shared a joke that it was coming for us. Imagine our horror when we realised it was in fact coming for us! Someone in the valley had seen our torchlight and had called mountain rescue. Before we knew it we were being winched one by one off the mountain into the helicopter and were carried safely back to the mountain rescue base.

This experience brings to mind how God has rescued me. We had not cried out for help and yet the helicopter came and found us. In the Bible Jesus tells three well-known stories of things that were lost: a sheep that strayed from the fold, a precious coin lost by a woman, and a “prodigal” son who squandered his inheritance. Jesus describes how each one is found.

In the story of the son it says while he was far off the Father ran to meet him. You might be desperate to be rescued or may not think you have any need of rescue. Whichever is true of you, Christians believe that God is searching for each person to rescue them and welcome them home to himself.

Revd Andy Giles is Associate Priest in the Harborough Anglican Team