Rev. Aldredo Cooper, the chaplain to the President of Chile, said of the rescued miners, "They're all wanting to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ. All 33 of them are saying that they found God in the mine. Five or six were already Christians and held services down in the mine.
Many went down with no faith at all but they all say this: 'We were not 33; we were 34 because Jesus Christ was with us down there.'"
One miner, Mario Sepulveda, told reporters, "We never lost faith. We knew we would be rescued. I have been with God and I've been with the devil. I seized the hand of God. I always knew God would get us out of there."
One interesting point that I had missed was that a medic actually was sent down the rescue hole before the other miners could be brought up.
Isn't that a picture of what God did? He sent His Son down to us before we could be rescued. We all, like the miners, were in darkness. But, as Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12). And, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness" (John 12:46).
I can only imagine the reaction, if those miners, trapped deep
underground, came across Psalm 88 on their audio Bibles, when these words rang in their ears:
I am counted with those who go down to the pit;
I am like a man who has no strength,
Adrift among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in the grave,
You have laid me in the lowest pit,
In darkness, in the depths.
You have put away my acquaintances far from me;
I am shut up, and I cannot get out;
My eye wastes away...
LORD, I have called daily upon You;
I have stretched out my hands to You.
Will You work wonders for the dead?
(Psalm 88: 4-10, selected portions)
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