A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers     

John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” One summer morning as Ray Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the kitchen window, and saw a small girl being swept along in the rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his Andover, Ohio, home. Blankenship knew that farther downstream, the ditch disappeared with a roar underneath a road and then emptied into the main culvert. Ray dashed out the door and raced along the ditch, trying to get ahead of the foundering child. Then he hurled himself into the deep, churning water. Blankenship surfaced and was able to grab the child’s arm. They tumbled end over end. Within about three feet of the yawning culvert, Ray’s free hand felt something—possibly a rock—protruding from one bank. He clung desperately to the rock, but the tremendous force of the water tried to tear him and the child away. “If I can just hang on until help comes,” he thought. He did better than that. By the time fire-department rescuers arrived, Blankenship had pulled the girl to safety. Both were treated for shock, but both soon made a full recovery from their ordeal. On April 12, 1989, Ray Blankenship was awarded the Coast Guard’s Silver Lifesaving Medal—quite appropriate for this hero. But more astounding was the fact that Ray Blankenship couldn’t even swim. Who would attempt to save another at the risk of their own life? Someone who was so selfless, that the life of the one they would attempt to rescue was more valuable than their own. In our Scripture lesson today, Jesus reminds us that there is no greater love than if a person lays down their life for another. To demonstrate this, He paid the ultimate price for our sins and laid down His life for us, on the cross, so that we might have eternal life. Today, the challenge for us is to give ourselves away. To be so selfless, that we begin valuing others more than ourselves. In doing this, we will find the true fulfillment of love that can only be realized within the context of the kingdom of God, and find new life He promises with each new day.