Getting a Parachute

by David McKinney

Ricardo began visiting the church meetings, and I decided I would invite him to study the Bible. The same day I called his house (he was not at home) I was told he wanted to talk to me. He wanted to ask me to teach him the Word. It was one of those "holy coincidences".

His mom has been a Christian for many years, and she has spent this time praying for her son's conversion. Prayer is and always will be a vital part of evangelism. He had lost a good job, and even worse, he had lost his marriage. Ricardo said that if only he had got to know Christ before, he would have saved his relationship with his wife. Ironically, it was the hurt from a broken marriage and the separation from his daughter that lead him to the arms of the only One who can heal and save.

At one of our all night prayer meetings, Ricardo saw a video that talked about a person wearing a parachute in an airplane. The person complained about the discomfort and felt ridiculous because no other passengers were wearing one. All this would be different, however, if the passenger knew for a fact that the plane was going to go down during the flight. There would be no complaining, or feeling stupid, in fact, the passenger with the parachute would think that he is the smartest one on the plane. The video compared this illustration to the Christian life. The disciple of Jesus has the foreknowledge that this world is coming to an end, and God offers the way of salvation. It is not always comfortable and easy to live life Jesus-style, but knowing where this world is headed, the Christian gladly follows his Master. This video had a great impact on his life as he referred to it on many occasions.

Diego and I studied the Bible with him for eight months, during which, by the grace of God we were able to establish a deep friendship with him, making it possible for him to go beyond a mere knowledge of the Word to real contact with our Lord. It was easy to see Jesus coming alive in his life from week to week. He decided to give his life to Christ in baptism. May God be praised.

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