James and Kati Kim left San Francisco to travel to Seattle for Thanksgiving.
With the holiday over, they started home. There was to be a night at an
expensive lodge on November 25. But they missed their turnoff from Interstate 5
and, after checking a roadmap, decided to get off and travel a secondary road to
their destination at Gold Beach, Oregon.
With their daughters, four-year-old Penelope and seven-month-old Sabine, they
drove for about a dozen miles. Then, in what would prove to be a terrible
mistake, they took a fork to the right and started down the road where they
would soon be stranded. Because of the danger of that route during winter, there
is a locked metal gate to keep people from going that way. It was secured
against traffic November 1. But a vandal had cut the lock and done away with the
barrier!
Thus four people came to be stranded in rugged territory. They couldn’t get a
cell phone signal. All they could do was try to survive until either they could
figure a way out of the remote area or search teams could find them.
Dwindling gasoline meant they could warm their car only occasionally. They found
some wood to burn and then burned their car tires. When they exhausted their
baby food and bottled water, they melted snow. Kati nursed the two girls.
Stranded for more than a week now, James knew he had to do something. On
Saturday, December 2, he started out on foot in the direction he and Kati
believed the nearest help could be found. He walked for more than ten miles in
the snow before dying of exposure and hypothermia.
Searchers found and saved Kim’s wife and daughters on Monday, December 4. His
body was found two days later. There would be no fairy-tale ending to the story.
People around the world have grieved with the 35-year-old man’s family.
The story is a moving testimony to one man’s love for his family. For many
Christians, it is yet another metaphor for the mission of the one whose birth we
celebrate in the Christmas season. In a world that headlines crime and abuse,
terrorism and violence, indifference and turning away, love still exists. Great
sacrifices are still made. Humans created in God’s very image are capable of
imitating his own self-giving love.
James Kim’s desperate attempt to save them is a testimony to one man’s love for
his family. As one person put it, he leaves them this legacy: “I did it for
you!”
If you’re struggling to find your way, Jesus has been trying to get through to
you since Bethlehem. It was so perilous a mission that it cost him his life. The
gospel says he did it for you. And – in case you’ve wondered – yes, he’d do it
all again.
Rubel Shelly www.RubelShelly.com
GBCIII@aol.com
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