One morning the air was warm, there was a gentle breeze, and the sun was coming up without a cloud in the sky!
It looked like it was going to be a perfect day to sell food in the food bus, but Gus did not open the food bus that morning. There was an emergency! A little 5-year-old girl was lost! The girl’s family was staying in a cabin close to the beach and the little girl had wandered out of the cabin. The parents were afraid that she had gone to the beach and was lost or in the ocean! Everyone around started to search the beach and many people ran into the ocean and began searching in the water! Some even got boats and kayaks and began searching further out in the ocean!
Gus saw that there were plenty of people searching the beach and the ocean and he wondered how he could help. Then he remembered the path that he liked to walk on during the evenings sometimes.
The path went up to the top of the cliffs along the ocean past the end of the beach. Gus ran as fast as he could to that path and followed the path to the top of the cliffs. Gus looked carefully on all sides of the path, but he did not see the little girl anywhere. At the end of the path there was an awesome view straight down to the ocean far below.
When Gus got to this place, he looked down the cliff very carefully to see if he could see the little girl, and he saw her! The little girl had fallen part way down the cliff, and she was on a narrow ledge of rock! If she fell off that ledge, she would fall all the way to the ocean and be killed! The little girl was crying, and the wind was blowing hard, she might fall at any moment! Gus had to do something fast!
There was no time to go back and get help or get a rope! Gus was going to have to climb down that cliff and rescue the little girl! Gus was scared, but he knew that he had to try to rescue the little girl! Gus tried to ease down the cliff, but he lost his footing and began to slide! With a piercing scream, Gus slid and bounced down the cliff! A few seconds later Gus came to an abrupt stop on a small ledge! Gus carefully sat up and looked around. The little girl was on the next ledge just below him! Gus carefully reached down, and the girl reached up. Gus grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her up to his ledge. Then Gus shoved her up to the next ledge before carefully climbing up himself. It took a long time, but eventually they got safely up to the top of the cliff.
Gus and the little girl started down the path to the beach. When they almost got to the end, the little girl saw her parents on the beach and with a cry of delight she ran ahead onto the beach! Gus was so exhausted that he just sat down against a tree and took a nap.
The little girl told everyone the story of the man who came down the cliff and rescued her, but no one knew who the man was! Gus did not want to be called a hero, and he did not want to be on the news, so after his nap he just quietly went back to the food bus and went to work selling food to the hungry people.
The adventure of that day reminded Gus of the parable of the Lost Sheep! That night Gus looked it up in his Bible.
In Luke 15:3-7 Jesus says:
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”
Gus also read Romans 5:8
But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Gus wrote in the Gus-Bus Eternal Journal:
Today a little girl got lost and fell part way down a cliff. I almost died trying to rescue her! This reminds me so much of what Jesus did for all people! We were lost in our sins and Jesus came to rescue us! The only way to rescue humans was for Jesus to give His life and die on the cross to pay for our sins. I could not have rescued that girl today if she had not allowed me to reach out and take her arm. In the same way, we cannot be saved from our sins if we do not reach out and accept the gift of salvation from Jesus! Jesus loves me so much! Thank you, Jesus, for dying for my sins and then rising from the dead three days later!