Fuerza Mineros!

This morning at around 01:00 GMT (22:00 local time on wednesday) the last of the Chilean minors were rescued.  Around three hours later the rescue team had all left the mine. Job done. Shift over. Thank God.

They spent 69 days down that shaft, seventeen of those days without any contact whatsoever with the outside world.  The rescue operation was extremely complex and dangerous, any amount of things could have gone wrong at any moment.  They didn't. In fact in the end it was incredibly smooth. The technology that was used was brand new, it had never been tested in circumstances like these. Yet an operation that was expected to take 48 hours took under 23 hours. Truly remarkable.

A reporter on the BBC website summed the events up this way: 'In the end, a potential tragedy in a remote corner of the world has been utterly transformed into one of the greatest tales of good news ever told.' (minute-by-minute coverage here)

There is a greater tale of good news.  The one were the hero rescues all the people who don't deserve it and does it simply out of love.  The one where those who were trapped didn't realise they were until they experienced true freedom.  The story of self-sacrifice for those that didn't deserve it or ask for it.  The unpopular story that some find offensive.  The one where those trapped mock the one offering to rescue them, ignore Him and even deny His existence.

After they had been rescued President Pinera of Chile said of the miners, 'They were experiencing a kind of rebirth,' (reported here).  Jesus said 'You must be born again' (John 3:7) , if you want to experience a rebirth stronger and more real than that experienced by miners then turn to Jesus to rescue you.