What would your reaction be if you were faced with what you thought was the certainty of death within the next few minutes?

This is a question to which a young Army officer, Mike Stevens, now knows the answer as regards to himself. On vacation one winter in Switzerland he became separated from the others of his ski party and got caught in an avalanche. The whole side of the snow slope came tumbling towards him and he was swept away in a confusion of noise and snow.

The catastrophe happened so quickly that his first clear memory is of being held securely in an extremely awkward position, surrounded by darkness and silence. He could neither hear nor see, struggle nor scream. The sheer weight of snow around him restricted his breathing, and the lack of oxygen was forcing his breath short and fast. He though he was doomed. It never once entered his head that he might be saved. "Well! This is really how it happens," he thought.

Like anyone else in such a predicament might well do, he turned to God. He prayed that his mother and father might be comforted; he thanked God for 22 years of wonderfully happy life; and then simply asked Him to receive him just as he was "for Christ's sake." He testifies that thereafter he was completely relaxed. His panic left him, and until he lost consciousness a few minutes later he was utterly at peace.

Mercifully the rumble of the avalanche had been heard, and suspicion that Mike Stevens might be involved, soon growing to certainty, a search was instituted. Instinctively as he was overwhelmed he had held one of his ski sticks above his head. Just two inches of this stick were protruding above the snow and were spotted by the search party. It took twenty minutes to dig him out, and a further half-hour for the blood to begin circulating warmth through his body again. He had indeed been as good as dead.

Mike Stevens had already years before as a lad come to the Lord Jesus just as he was, and had been made a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had received the forgiveness of his sins, and assurance that a place in heaven was reserved for him. Thus at what seemed the end of the road he was ready to go, to be with the Lord, which, as the Bible tells us, is "far better."

Two of the party, impressed with the events of the day, took the same step of faith that same evening. May all of us, while we have the inclination and opportunity, get this vital matter of our relationship with God settled, so that we too, when our time comes may tread the valley of the shadow of death confidently and unafraid.

—R.O.