Last week we were on holiday in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. One evening we were walking around Castle Hill and saw the lifeboat station was open. We went in and saw the lifeboat crew who had just returned from a training exercise and were hosing down their modern Tamar class all-weather lifeboat. The station also has a D class inshore lifeboat. Both boats are involved in regular rescues. On 19 June the inshore picked up an 80-year-old lady who had become cut off by the tide whilst walking between Monkstone and Tenby. On 26 June the lifeboat rescued someone in an inflatable dingy being blown out to sea off Broadhaven.

The RNLI was founded in 1824 and now operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland that provide a 24/7 rescue service to those in danger on the sea. The lifeboat crews are local people who are unpaid volunteers. They are ready to respond to emergency calls at any time of the day or night and sometimes risk their lives to save people in danger. They are fine examples of the courage and sacrifice human beings, who are created in the image of God, can show.

More than once during his ministry Jesus saved his disciples when they were caught in violent, life-endangering storms on the Sea of Galilee. One evening, after a busy day of teaching the crowds, Jesus and his disciples were crossing Galilee when a sudden furious squall came up. The waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Many Christians have experienced the loving power of Jesus in the storms of life when they have cried to him for help, and he has brought them safely through.

Jesus accomplished the greatest ever rescue when he died on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Robert Robinson’s hymn expresses the thankfulness Christians feel to Jesus for laying down his life for them; “Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger interposed his precious blood.”