Last week, US Airways Flight 1549 lost both engines just minutes after takeoff. With just a few moments in which to act, the pilot managed to bring the plane down in the Hudson River with no loss of life.

The pilot’s skill saved the passengers on that plane—but it’s natural to wonder if God was watching out for the people on what has been termed the “miracle flight.” One passenger was shared her thoughts on her unlikely survival: “I was praising God. While I’m giving the captain his due justice, it was only by the grace of god that kept us alive.”

In that spirit, here are two short essays that reflect on the near-tragedy and draw spiritual conclusions and parallels from it:

• Miracle on the Hudson: at Out of Ur, Gordon MacDonald considers the teamwork, training, and discipline that saved the lives of the people on that plane. Does your church community exhibit those same traits?
• A Ron Hutchcraft devotional essay sees a compelling real-life illustration of the Gospel message in the crash and subsequent rescue efforts. Hutchcraft has a knack for seeing reflections of the Christian message in traumatic events.

Let’s give thanks that the passengers and crew of Flight 1549 survived, and find inspiration in their story.

Image by Twitter user Janis Krums

By: Andy. This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 4:44 pm and is filed under News & World Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.