In Hind Sight
On Saturday June 23, 12 boys and their coach from the Wild Boars football team set out on their mission, right after soccer practice, to a 45-minute bike ride from their school to the notorious Tham Luang cave system, Thailand’s longest, with a series of tunnels, slippery rocks and cliffs with stark drop-offs shrouded in darkness, during the country’s wet season. Their goal was to scrawl their names on the wall at the end of the tunnel. Monsoon rain quickly turned their escape route, and all caverns and tunnels behind them, into raging dirty flood water, roaring out of the entrance, they were trapped, 1km underground and about a 4km trek back from the now flooded entrance.
The plight of the boys and their coach has riveted Thailand and much of the world from the heart-sinking news they were missing, to the first flickering video of the huddle of anxious yet smiling boys when they were found 10 days later by a pair of British divers. Rising water kept them forging ahead, along elevated slopes, where they found a dry ledge 4km inside the cave that would ultimately make their rescue even more treacherous, leaving them stranded in total darkness for days. That triggered an international rescue operation and on July 2, more than a week after they went missing, they were located huddled on a 10sq m ledge.
Monday and Tuesday, Thai Navy SEAL divers enter the cave searching for the boys, but are forced back by rushing floodwaters. Wednesday June 27 a team of more than 30 American military personnel from the US Pacific Command arrive. They are joined by three British diving experts who enter the cave but quickly retreat in the face of heavy flooding. Thursday June 28 and the underwater rescue is temporarily halted after downpours create even more fast-moving floods inside the cave. Large water pumps are shipped in to try drain the rising, murky floodwaters. Saturday June 30 a break in the rain allows divers to reach further inside the cave but they are still a long distance from where the boys are believed to be. Sunday July 1 Divers inch further into the cave.
Monday July 2 finally, a miracle, the 12 boys and their coach are found alive late on Monday evening by the British cave diving team. Crowds cheer the good news, but attention soon turns to the difficult task of getting the boys out safely. Tuesday July 3 much-needed food and medical supplies reach the boys as rescuers prepare for the possibility that they may remain in the cave for many months. Wednesday July 4 officials say the group are being taught how to use diving masks and breathing apparatuses. Teams pump out water around the clock as more rain is forecast for the days ahead. Thursday July 5 in a sign of increased urgency, authorities say expected rains may force the complex rescue quicker than first thought. Friday July 6 tragedy strikes, a Thai Navy Seal, helping to establish an airline to the boys dies after passing out while returning from the chamber.
Saturday July 7 a scrawled message emerges from the trapped. Sunday July 8 after an 11 hour rescue, Divers lead the first four of the boys out of the cave as night falls, sending them to the hospital. Monday July 9 after a 9 hour rescue, Divers lead the next four boys out of the cave as dusk falls, sending them to the hospital. Tuesday July 10, nineteen divers took 9 hours to escort the final five members of the group out, in the toughest rescue operation of the past few days. The coach left the cave after the boys, followed by a doctor and three Thai Navy SEALs who stayed with the boys every night. Success.
This got me thinking; we are all trapped here on Planet Earth, our escape path is flooded, and our very existence is daily threatened by the rising torrent of sin, evil, corruption and disasters. God in his loving Mercy has dispatched the very best rescuers in the Universe, to extract and to rescue all who wish him to. He even lost his Only Dear Son, who died perfecting the rescue, making it all possible above impossible obstacles, that whom soever will may come, and have life, Eternal Life. God has his Highly Skilled and Trained remain with us, our Guardian Angels. 2 Corinthians 5:19 “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Are you going to daily learn to “dive” into the Holy Scripture, to learn to breathe the “air of Heaven” while submerged in the murky swirling tide of Evil that swirls ever threateningly about and over us? Are you going to trust everything to Jesus Christ and Heaven, to the Guardian Angels who will go before you, with one right behind you, leading you safely away from certain “Death” unto Real “Life?” The path is long and “Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14. If you ever let go of your guardian angels, your survival is basically impossible, you must always let them guide with your total submission. John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” There is only one way out, Heaven knows the way very well, and the “air of Heaven” is of a bountiful supply, until you stand in Heaven itself, and can freely breathe the pure sweet air of Eternity.
In Hindsight the “Coach” made a nearly “Fatal Error” by leading the team into the caverns of the Mountain. In Hindsight, Eve made a Fatal Error in listening to Satan, and she received pain, sorrow, death and separation from God, and loss of some children. Are you finding that “In Hindsight” your path should have been different? Then right now choose Jesus and Eternal Life, Jesus, the only way out.
