*John the Baptist saw a dove and believed. James Whittaker saw a seagull and believed. Who’s to say the one who sent the first didn’t send the second?

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James Whittaker was a member of the handpicked crew that flew the B-17 Flying Fortress captained by Eddie Rickenbacker. Anybody who knows about October of 1942 knows the day that Rickenbacker and his crew were reported lost at sea.

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Somewhere over the Pacific, out of radio range, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. The nine men spent nearly the next month floating in three rafts. They battled the heat, the storms and the water. Sharks, some ten feet long, would ram their nine-foot boats. After only eight days their rations were eaten or lost to saltwater. It would take a miracle to survive. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

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One morning, after their daily devotions, Rickenbacker leaned his head back against the raft and pulled his hat over his eyes. A bird landed on his head and he peered out from under his hat. Every eye was on him. He instinctively knew it was a seagull.

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Long story short, Rickenbacker caught it and the crew ate it. The bird’s intestines were used for bait to catch fish… and the crew survived to tell the story. A story about a stranded crew with no hope or help in sight. You might say just a wing and a prayer.

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A story about prayers offered and prayers answered. A story about a visitor from an unknown land traveling a great distance to give his life as a sacrifice.

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A story of salvation.

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A story much like our own. Weren’t we, like the crew, stranded? Weren’t we, like the crew, praying? And weren’t we, like the crew, rescued by a visitor we’d never seen through a sacrifice we’ll never forget? Prayers were answered.

. . . Pray... God Answers prayer... 

Believe... 

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 

Mathew 7:7, 8

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