Miracle On The Nooksack River

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for God is with you wherever you go.”  Joshua 1:9

Summertime on the Nooksack River, sitting in an inner tube, floating mile after mile in the warmth of the sun. On any hot weekend in July and August the river is spotted with hundreds of floaters drifting as singles or bunched together in groups. When you are young and haven’t many responsibilities, the river is the place to go.

On one hot Saturday in August of 1973, I set up a float day with some friends in my graduating class. These were also kids from the youth group at church.

Before we stepped into the river, I had a brilliant idea that we should take baling twine, about ten feet long, tie one end around the floater’s inner tube and the other end around one of their ankles. My thinking was, if they fell off of their tube, they could grab the twine and pull it back to them. What could go wrong?

We were planning the float to be five miles long ending at a bridge by the highway where we would finish the afternoon with a hot-dog roast. One at a time the kids got into the river, centered themselves on their inner tube and began drifting in the current. The sun that day was hot, and the water felt good as we drifted. I elected to bring up the rear.

At the time, I was a hard-contact lens wearer. If you get splashed in the face with water and it hits your eye, the contact will wash off the eye’s surface and you will lose it. I therefore elected to float the river as a nearsighted blind guy.

The longer we drifted, the further apart my group got from each other. Through my blurry vision, I could see some of the floaters a hundred yards ahead. Many were much further than that.

In a previous story I wrote of how God knows your days and how He is never caught by surprise. Sometimes He shares his mighty miracles to show his great love and power and sometimes he does not work miracles but gives us peace knowing he is in control.

Up ahead on the river I could see a log jam which had built up on a sandbar in the center of the river. A log jam is a tangle of brush and trees that have drifted down from upstream. They have usually fallen into the river from a landslide or bank erosion. The river split at the jam and flowed rapidly around both sides. I could see some of the floaters drifting around the right side and some float around the left, but I was still one-hundred yards from reaching it myself.

As I drifted close to the jam, I elected to float around the right side and with a little paddling, I got into the current sending me on that side of the tangled mess of large trees. I remember wondering how many cords of firewood might be in that pile. Obviously, enough for many years. And then as I was scanning the pile, I saw lying on the very top, a two-man canoe. It looked to be in great shape.

“What the heck! I’ve got to check this out,” I thought. 

There was no one around and I was going to grab a free canoe. I back paddled hard against the current until I was able to grab some limbs and pull myself up onto the log jam. Then I secured my tube and climbed to the top of the pile where the canoe was lying. All things considered, it wasn’t in bad shape but how it got up there, I do not know. And then I heard a small, distant, voice. A female, crying. I could hear her repeating, “Please God, help me, please God, help me.”

Where was it coming from? I moved across the pile to where the river flowed around the left side and the voice became stronger. Then, looking down through the brush at the river’s surface I saw her. It was one of the girls from my group named Angie. She was holding onto an alder branch with both arms. Her inner tube, still tied to her ankle, was under the log jam pulling her with the force of the current. If she tired and let go, she would be pulled under the log jam and most likely drown.

In my shorts pocket, I had my Swiss Army knife from cutting twine earlier. I jumped down to the water line, grabbed her arms, and pulled her from the river. With the knife I cut the twine from her ankle and the inner tube immediately bobbed to the surface downstream of the jam. I retrieved it.

We sat on the log jam for a long period of time as she wept, and we praised God.

The miracle on the Nooksack was the canoe. There was absolutely no reason for me to think that anyone would be trapped in the log jam and absolutely no reason for me to stop from drifting on by. But God heard her voice for she was his child and I believe he placed the canoe there to allow me to rescue her. For though it was no surprise to Him where she was, he used that example to show us his love and ability to care for his children.  A God who is everywhere, but also a God who is here for us individually. 

I wrote a lyric to a song once which very much relates to this story and how God loves and cares for His children immensely. It says:

“I can’t believe that a God with so much on his mind would give up a moment in time for someone like me. But for someone like me he left the comfort of his home, he left the glory of his throne, he left the garments of a king, he left the praises angels sing, to walk the road to Calvary to die on a cross between two thieves…for someone like me.”

Psalm 23

The Lord Jesus is my shepherd. I lack for nothing!

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He gives me rest and he restores my soul.

He guides me on the paths of righteousness that I might make him proud.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil,

For you oh Lord are always with me,

And your rod and your staff bring me comfort.

You have prepared a table before me, in the presence of those who are my enemies.

You have anointed my head with oil.

You give and you give until my cup overflows.

I know that goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life

and in the end…I will live in the house of my Lord… forever.

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