The Dead Live

A couple of weeks ago marked the 30th anniversary of the explosion of Mount St. Helens in Washington State on the 18th May 1980. Around that time, I came across a collection of extraordinary photographs taken around that date. Each photo was incredible, but I found the following image to be particularly striking:

This photo shows a campervan found 8 miles from the erruption. It’s two occupants were found dead. The marks that you can see  near to and around the van are those of a helicopter’s landing skids and the footprints of its on-board searcher. Presumably, the would-be rescuer landed, looked in the van, saw two corpses and decided to continue in his search for those who were still alive; those he could do something for, whom he could save. It is a truly sad, hopeless photograph.

The Bible says that God found me in this state.

Dead.

Utterly lifeless.

I thank God that he did not just look sadly upon me, seeing my life as a tragic waste, and then move on, impotent, powerless to act.

I thank God that He is the One who ‘gives life to the dead, and calls into existence the things that do not exist‘ (Romans 4:17).

God spoke life into my dead soul with the same power, the same irresistable authority, with which he spoke all Creation into existence.

Salvation is the supernatural intervention of God in which dead people are made alive. I thank God that, because of Jesus, the dead live.