Maryland Heights Fire Protection Unit of St. Louis, Missouri

When Help Was Needed

The call came in to the Maryland Heights Fire Protection Unit of St. Louis, Missouri, that a metro
bus, loaded only with the driver, had slid on an icy road and spun around in the opposite direction.
Two firefighter paramedics, Jon Stillpass and Shaylor Taetz, responded in an ambulance. They
determined that the driver didn't appear to have any life-threatening injuries, but she was shaken
up and needed to be taken to the hospital for evaluation.

As they made their way to DePaul Hospital, Stillpass continued to navigate carefully on the icy
roads. They added chains to the wheels of the ambulance for traction, but at one point the
ambulance still slid into a guardrail. They managed to continue until they were about a mile from
the hospital. Then the ambulance began to slide again, but Stillpass was able to guide the
ambulance away from a 15-foot ravine into a small gully on the left side of the road. The ambulance
was stuck.

"Let's just huff it," Taetz said to Stillpass. So the two paramedics put some small chains on their
boots and began to push the patient on a stretcher up the icy road to the hospital - complete with
two large hills.

"You know how your parents say 'uphill both ways'? It was like that," Taetz joked.

A nurse captured a photo of the paramedics guiding the stretcher up one of the hills. The photo
gave visual evidence their determination to make sure their patient received the care she needed.

The Bible reveals that each of us desperately needs the care of Jesus, the Great Physician. All of
us, through our wrong choices, have sinned in the sight of God (Romans 3:23). Sin is fatal, "for
the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). If we don't receive the care of the Great Physician, we
will die.

The Good News - the Gospel - is that God sent His Son Jesus to be our Great Physician. The "cure"
for our sins necessitated the death of Jesus on the cross as payment for our sins. "For Christ also
suffered once for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18; cf. 2
Corinthians 5:18-21).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts
16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans
10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will
continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

When we desperately needed help, Jesus came to our rescue (Luke 19:10; Galatians 1:3-4). Won't YOU
accept His offer of salvation and eternal life while you still can?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from "Firefighters walk a mile on ice to get injured patient to the hospital"
by Lauren M. Johnson, www.cnn.com, February 12, 2019.