The Diver's Message From the Dark

On July 2, 2018, twelve boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach vanished into the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand. Monsoon rains had flooded the passages behind them. For nine days, their families gathered at the cave entrance — praying, weeping, barely sleeping — with no word whether their children were alive or dead.

Then, on July 2nd, British diver John Volanthen surfaced from the murky water in a chamber deep inside the mountain. He counted heads. Twelve boys. One coach. All breathing. He swam back through miles of submerged tunnels carrying the only thing that mattered: news.

When word reached the families outside, the wailing turned to shouting. Strangers embraced. Volunteers who had labored around the clock wept openly. A single message — "they are alive" — transformed a vigil of despair into an explosion of joy that flashed across television screens worldwide.

Isaiah saw something like this centuries before it happened. He pictured a messenger cresting the mountains toward Jerusalem, feet caked with dust, lungs burning, carrying news almost too good to believe: "Your God reigns! He has redeemed His people!" The watchmen on the walls see him coming, and together they burst into song.

The gospel is that kind of news. Not advice. Not philosophy. An announcement — that the God who seemed silent has acted, and His salvation reaches to the ends of the earth.