Life Preserver

I heard a story once about a Christian man that took his son and his son's friend fishing on a lake.

They fished and had a great day. They talked about Jesus to the friend but he just laughed and made comments about "being too bad for Jesus."

Late in the afternoon a storm came up quickly and their boat flipped over throwing all three into the water.

Only one life vest was grabbed before they floated away on the choppy water.

For what seemed like a very long time the three treaded water and tried to stay afloat. They would hold tight to each other and try to stay afloat with the one life vest. 

After awhile it became apparent that the life vest would not, could not support and save all three.

As the three men slowly gave up hope for rescue the father prayed. He thanked God for His love and mercy. He thanked God for loving them even while they were still in their sin. And they thanked God for the opportunity to spend the day with his son and his son's friend.

Using the last bit of strength that he had left, he slipped the life vest onto his son's friend.

When the friend kept questioning why, the Son said, we love you and don't want you to perish.

Only one of those lived that day. That young man surrendered his heart and life to The Lord and became an evangelist.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 NASB)