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	He Rescued Me And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. -- Matt. 1:21. --------------------- During Sir Ernest Shackleton's expeditions to the Antarctic in 1914, his ship, the Endurance, was crushed in an ice floe in the Weddell Sea. The crew drifted for days until they could make a landing on Elephant Island. Shackleton had the men set up camp where they could preserve their supplies and try to survive the coming winter. But he soon realized that no one would be coming to rescue them. No one had any idea where they were. They were cut off from the world by the freezing, stormy ocean. There was only one hope of a rescue: someone had to cross that hostile ocean and get help. Shackleton prepared a 20-foot lifeboat for the voyage. From volunteers he picked a crew of five to join him. They would have to cross 800 miles of tempestuous sea in order to reach a Norwegian whaling station on the frozen island of South Georgia. It seemed an impossible task in an open boat at the stormiest time of year. But Shackleton set out with his men. For days they huddled under a makeshift canvas covering, keeping the bow turned into the fiercest waves, praying that the wind wouldn't tear their small sail away. They endured bone-chilling cold, sleeping bags frozen stiff, icy water streaming down their backs, hunger, and thirst. Seventeen days after their voyage began, when all were nearly dead of exposure and thirst, they spotted the black cliffs of South Georgia! Shackleton had made it through. Soon a ship would be on its way to rescue the rest of his stranded men. When God looked down on our predicament and saw that we were isolated on our island, surrounded by a boundless sea of sin, He plunged into that hostile sea Himself. He took on Himself the icy vastness of the evil in humankind. Jesus came on a rescue mission. We were helplessly lost. Marooned on this rocky, barren island called earth, we couldn't save ourselves. Jesus left the security of home. He left the worship and adoration of the angels and the glory of eternity. Most of all, Jesus left the intimacy of His fellowship with the Father. Jesus had existed with the Father from eternity. Have you ever been separated from someone you love for days, for months, for years? You know how painful separation is. You know the inner emptiness it brings. Jesus risked all to come to earth. He faced the full power of Satan's temptations. He experienced the enormous wrath of Satan's hatred. Jesus made this amazing sacrifice for one reason. He loved you too much to remain in heaven while you were lost. He loved you too much to remain with the Father while you were caught in the grip of sin. He plunged into the icy ocean of this sinful world to redeem us. What a Savior! What a Redeemer! What a Deliverer! He is worth serving and loving forever.