Shackleton's Promise to Elephant Island

In August 1916, Ernest Shackleton stood at the bow of a Chilean tugboat, scanning the frozen shore of Elephant Island through binoculars. Four months earlier, he had left twenty-two men stranded on that desolate strip of rock and ice, promising he would return for them. No one expected him to keep that promise.

To reach help, Shackleton had crossed eight hundred miles of the most violent ocean on earth in a twenty-two-foot lifeboat, then hiked over the unmapped mountains of South Georgia Island in a thirty-six-hour forced march. Three previous rescue attempts had been turned back by pack ice. But Shackleton refused to abandon his men. On his fourth attempt, he finally broke through.

When the men on the beach saw his ship, they wept. Every single one had survived. Shackleton's first words as he pulled ashore were simple: "Are you all well?"

The prophet Ezekiel speaks of a Shepherd far more relentless than Shackleton. "I Myself will search for My sheep," the Lord declares. "I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness." God does not delegate this rescue. He does not send a committee. The Almighty comes Himself — binding the injured, strengthening the weak, seeking the lost across every frozen wilderness of the human heart. And unlike any earthly rescuer, He never runs out of attempts.