By, Mike Riley

On June 2, 1960, there was a news story about an eight-year-old boy by the name of Walter Sedor being found sitting on a rock, about a mile from Tartan Lake, 12 miles north of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

The story is significant, in that Walter was the lone survivor of a plane crash that claimed the life of his father. For fifteen days, he had waited beside the wrecked and burned plane, waiting for rescuers to find him.

The Royal Canadian Air Force and civilian planes had scanned over 70,000 square miles of land for days, but no trace had been found, until on the fifteenth day, a commercial airline pilot sighted the boy standing on a rock and waving feebly for help.

For fifteen days, the boy had been without food, causing his emaciated and weakened condition. A few days longer would have caused his demise.

One of the tragic aspects of this story, is that there was no need for the boy to have been hungry, for near the plane was a survival kit containing rations that would have lasted him approximately twenty-four days. The kit had been thrown clear of the plane when it crashed, but the boy was unaware of what it contained.

Spiritually speaking, many folks today are like Walter Sedor. They are lost in the wilderness — not in the north country, but in the wilderness of sin, doubt, and fear. Their souls are starving from spiritual malnutrition, while not far from them, is a survival kit with the abundant bread of life to nourish their starving souls (John 6:32-35-NKJV). The Bible contains the daily rations we need for survival, but so often, it lies unopened and unused, simply because we are unaware of its importance to our spiritual existence (cf. 2 Kings 22-NKJV).

It’s tragic when mature adults, as well as young men and women, fail to avail themselves of the bread of life contained within the pages of the Bible (John 6:32-35-NKJV; cf. John 4:14-NKJV; Matthew 5:6-NKJV), when there are so many Bibles available to us today. God has provided us with the greatest survival kit known to man — all we have to do is open the survival kit and feast on its contents, satisfying the spiritual hunger of our souls.

Brethren and friends, let us utilize our spiritual survival kit this very day (and every day – Acts 17:11-NKJV; 2 Timothy 2:15-KJV), by opening and feasting on its eternal life-giving contents (Jeremiah 15:15-16-NKJV; Ezekiel 3:1-4-NKJV; Matthew 4:4-NKJV; 2 Timothy 3:15-17-NKJV; 1 Peter 2:1-2-NKJV; Hebrews 5:12-14-NKJV).