SALVATION

Before Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, before he was Governor of California, before he was an actor or even a sportscaster, he was a lifeguard.

Whatever your opinion of Ronald Reagan you have to acknowledge the influence of his mother Nell. Nell was married to a man who had become an alcoholic. The family didn’t have much in terms of material goods. What Nell was able to do was to teach her son the happiness found in being Good; she taught him her Christian values. He believed her and those values stuck with him.

At the age of 15, Reagan became a lifeguard at Lowell Park on the Rock River in Illinois. He served in that capacity for seven summers and over the course of that time he is credited with having saved the lives of 77 people. In later years, Reagan stated that he had loved that job, the job of lifeguard.

Regardless, all 77 of those people eventually died. Reagan hadn’t saved their lives, he had simply delayed their deaths.

Today, tomorrow, what difference did it make?

Perhaps, God didn’t want them yet. Perhaps, He used Reagan as an instrument that allowed those souls the time they needed to save themselves, to find true salvation.