Don't Miss the Moment

On a late night, a bus full of young people was coming back from a weekend getaway. While the church bus was driving along the expressway, a vehicle in front of it blew a tire and spun out of control, slamming into the side of the bus and shoving it off the highway into a canal full of water. Within moments, the church bus was submerged under water.

The driver managed to free himself and escape through a broken window. After he surfaced into the dark night, he began screaming the name of his daughter, who had been on the bus. Miraculously, he heard a familiar voice yell out from the shore, a voice he thought he might never hear again. “Dad! Daddy!”

The man’s daughter was one of the fortunate ones who had managed to escape the watery trap. They were both safe.

As they hugged on the shore, the father suddenly pulled away. “I have to go back down there,” he told his daughter.

“No, Dad! Please don’t go back down there. It’s not safe!” his daughter cried. The night was dark, and the churning water was darker still.

“I have to, sweetheart. Someone else’s baby is down there. I have to do what I can.”

That night her father was a hero who saved dozens of lives as he reached into the trapped bus and pulled children out of the water.

Standing on the shore as the rescue workers secured the scene, the driver embraced his daughter. As she looked at her soaking father, she admitted, “Dad, I saw something I had never seen before in you. I am sorry that I have worried you and Mom. I want to be like you! You risked your life to save others.”

As you get dressed each morning, are you ready to act in a decisive, self-sacrificial manner whenever the opportunity unexpectedly arises? Are you ready to offer your body as a living sacrifice, as the Apostle Paul encouraged Christians in Romans 12:1?

I challenge you not to miss your moment. Your children are watching.