Brother Ho was sick and running a fever when he and his friend stepped into the icy waters of the Mekong River. They were Bible students in Laos before the Communist soldiers overran their college.

    They barely escaped with their lives on their way to Thailand. They could not say goodbye to their families, who were not Christians, because they might be turned over to the police. So they said a silent prayer and stepped into the cold, muddy, river with precious cargo strapped to their backs—Bibles wrapped in plastic. Other earthly possessions were left behind.

    Ho thought to himself, “Lord, at least if we die, they will know we are Christians and hopefully read one of these Bibles.”

    About halfway across the river, Ho’s friend desperately shifted the plastic bag under his chest to float on it. The sudden splashing noise alerted the guards in a nearby tower, and they shined a spotlight onto the river. The light flashed over one of the plastic bundles and the guard dismissed it as just a fish.

    Relieved, Ho and his friend quietly made their way to the Thailand side of the river. They thanked God that their Bibles contained the words of eternal life and had also saved their lives that night. After arriving to safety, they dedicated themselves to ministering in the many refugee camps of Thailand.

The missionaries in this story were relying on more than paper and leather binding to save them. They relied on God. Still, their midnight river crossing gives us an accurate picture of the role the Bible should play in our lives. We are to rely on God’s Word as if our very lives depended on it. We are unlikely to find ourselves in a situation where this truth becomes a literal reality. However, the illustration is valid. We must cling to the promises of Scripture to preserve our lives. When we are in trouble, we cannot swim far enough on our own to get us out of a mess. We must “float” on God’s Word, or we will altogether sink.