by Tom Goodman
Elizabeth Woodman knows how important it is to trust your
father in a crisis. One April afternoon,
39-year-old Edward Woodman was steering his houseboat toward the north end of
California's Lake Oroville. His
11-year-old son, David, was at his side.
He did not see it when his 8-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, fell over the
bow.
The girl tumbled helplessly between the aluminum pontoons of
the houseboat, straight toward the churning outboard motor at the stern. Hitting the propeller, the blades tore into
her right arm and then jammed in the tangled mass of her pink sweater. While she tried to free herself, Elizabeth
remembered what her father had told her so many times: “The only thing that can hurt you in the
water is panic.” Calmly, she tried to
untangle her sweater from the prop while she reminded herself over and over: “My daddy will save me.”
Edward heard the thud under the boat and he felt the engine
stop. Puzzled, he walked to the stern
and looked over the railing. Seeing
Elizabeth’s pink sweater, the father jumped into the dark water and found his
daughter. She stared back at him with no
fear or panic—just patient trust. He
knew her calmness would give him a chance to free her.
The father surfaced and descended four, five, and six times
to breathe life-giving air into her mouth as he yanked and cut at the pink
threads holding his daughter under.
Finally, he got her free and to the surface. In moments they were at full throttle toward
the nearest marina and to a hospital where her arm was mended.
The next day, a reporter asked the little girl if she had
been afraid during the rescue. “Oh, I
knew my daddy would save me,” Elizabeth said, and then looked at her father,
adding, “And he did.”
How can we have this kind of trust in our heavenly Father?
This Sunday we’ll find out in a study of Psalm 27. It’s the first in a new
series through selected Psalms. We’re calling the series Sacred Blues, because all the psalms we’ll study are about reaching
out to God from the midst of hardship and crisis.
Billy Graham wrote, “If we can trust God for our eternal
salvation, can’t we also trust him for our lives right now?” The old evangelist
was right. Join us at 10 this Sunday to learn how to do this.
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