Articles
Plane Crashes & Salvation – Part 1
I remember seeing the headline “US Airways Plane Crash-Land in New
York City’s Hudson River ”
made it stand out “Everyone Survives.” Most plane crashes end in death.
However, this was different.
On January 16, 2009 US Airline Flight 1549 ran into a flock of birds
shortly after take-off, which caused both engines to fail. The pilot had to
make a decision quickly. He elected to land in the Hudson River . Chesly
Sullenburger is 57 years old, a former fighter pilot, and runs a safety consult-
ing firm. He and his crew have been credited with saving all 155 people on
board the plane.
After safely landing in the river the passengers still had to be rescued.
The flight crew was able to get the people to quietly and efficiently get out
on the wings of the plane. Boats nearby then came to take the people to safe-
ty. Each person was responsible for certain duties and fulfilled those duties.
After thinking about this, I came to see a connection between what happened
on January 16th and our salvation.
For the crew and passengers to survive, everything had to work out
right. If the plane flew into the birds earlier, it would not have had the speed
and altitude to reach the river. If the problem happened a minute or two later,
the plane may have been too far away from the river to circle back. It hap-
pened at just the right time. We see in the conversion of the Ethiopian Eu-
nuch in Acts 8 God’s divine providence. The Eunuch was traveling
from Jerusalem back home. He was reading from Isaiah 53, a passage he did
not understand. Out in the middle of nowhere a man appeared and asked if
he understand what he was reading. Now, was this a coincidence or what?
Obviously, we know it was not just happenstance, but God working through
Philip. Notice the absence of any miracles in this conversion. An angel told
Philip where to go and who he would meet. The rest was up to Philip. God’s
divine providence is the rule and not the exception. B.Johnson
– the remaining part of the headline is what
