Jack and I walked to the beach today, or I should say we tried. With all the snow and subsequent plowing, the path down to the shore had become completely impassable, unless of course I wanted to trudge through neck-high drifts with snow-filled boots. Even Jack couldn’t navigate the depth, struggling first to get into it, then to get out.
Lake Michigan was frozen white as far as I could see, and it’ll be months before that icy water becomes swimmable. No one would jump into frozen water like that with the possible exception of the Polar Bear Club. Certainly even they wouldn’t venture where their feet couldn’t touch bottom, since hypothermia can be quick and deadly. Yet last week in Chicago, a man found himself thrashing in deep, ice-filled Lake Michigan water with little hope of survival.
It all started with a routine dog-walking event, the man and his 3 standard poodles. One of them, off a leash, ran around a 10 foot sea-wall at the Monroe Street Harbor, ending up on the ice. Immediately he broke through and was unable to get out, so his owner jumped in after him.
Quickly realizing he’d miscalculated, the man screamed for help, and the other two dogs began barking atop the sea-wall. A lone cross country skier heard the distant commotion and immediately dialed 911. The man and his dog were weakening fast, though, and both seemed doomed.
Enter God…. who brought along our former next door neighbor.
Adam Dominik, physically fit as an experienced climber, was jogging in that remote place near the empty harbor for the very first time. He heard the man’s cries and ran over to find a face peeking out of the broken ice and a dog tangled up with him.
Adam knew the man couldn’t last much longer but stayed calm. He noticed a yellow nylon rope stuck to a nearby sign, just the right length and strength to be of help. That morning he’d been practicing knots used in climbing and had mastered something called the Figure 8, strong enough to pull a man and his wet clothes from the water.
Adam said, “At first I threw the rope over him but the dog was kind of pulling on him with his weight, pushing him under the water. He kept saying, ‘Save the dog first!’ I kept saying, ‘No, we’re going to save your life first and then the dog; your life is more important,’ but he insisted on pulling up the dog first.”
Then at a crucial moment, when Adam had the dog out and the man half way up the sea-wall, the 911 team arrived to finish the rescue. (View the 1 minute NBC news video below.)
Jogger-Rescues-Man-Dog-From-Montrose-Harbor-243596711
So, how was God involved? Tomorrow we’ll find out.
“Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up.” (Psalm 69:14-15)