Be Our Guest / Scott Surette

The Chilean miners’ rescue: Some eternal thoughts about our salvation

Watching the rescue of the miners in Chile was a very powerful experience for a lot of people all over the world. Watching each of the miners being brought up one by one, I was overwhelmed with some eternal thoughts.

One of the most impressive things about this rescue is what a testimony it is to how precious each and every human life is. These trapped men were not famous people. They were ordinary miners that the world would not have thought much of outside of this event.

And yet, once the world found out that they were alive and trapped, the entire world came together in the desire to bring them home. Even this group of ordinary “nobodies” became very important to the whole world simply because there was the hope of saving them. And, inside, we all want to be saved.

Watching the miners come up one by one was so powerful. With every rescued miner, there was a large crowd gathered around, with the president of Chile and other important people all cheering, clapping and crying tears of joy.

With every miner, there were always family members standing right there to greet them with hugs, kisses and tears. I was overwhelmed just imagining that this might be what arriving in heaven will be like.

With God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all the angels and saints will gather around, cheering, clapping and crying tears of joy over our rescue. And our loved ones who have gone before us will be standing there to greet us with hugs and kisses. Just the thought of my arrival in heaven unfolding like that moves me to tears.

Consider this: When compared to eternity in heaven, our lives here on Earth are very much like living “alive and trapped” in our own “hole in the ground,” and, right now, all of heaven is united in an all-out effort to rescue us from our own certain death. Just imagine all the angels and saints looking down on our “alive but trapped” lives in this world, and how all of heaven will stop at nothing to bring us home. We are all that important.

There was only one way out of that mine, and that way came from above. These miners would never have considered not getting into the rescue capsule. Staying in that mine would have meant certain death. The miners would never have seen the light of day again.

What about us? We need to be rescued too, just like these miners. We need to find the one and only way home to heaven.

Jesus is the only way. Without Jesus, we face certain eternal death. Without Jesus, we will never see the light of an eternal day.

Now consider that God not only has drilled a hole to reach us and sent a capsule to rescue us, but the capsule itself is his one and only son, Jesus, who died and rose just to save us. That is how important we are! That is how hard all of heaven is working to rescue each one of us.

There will be great rejoicing in heaven when each one of us is rescued. I can’t wait to see Moses and Peter cheering and clapping at my arrival into heaven, and my loved ones standing right there with hugs and tears of joy.

What a vision! Thank you, Jesus!

(Scott Surette is a member of St. Louis de Montfort Parish in Fishers, Ind., in the Lafayette Diocese.) †