Nearly a year ago, a fierce 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing hundreds of people. One man, however, refused to let his fiancee become a statistic.

A Turkish Air Force Lieutenant named Onur Eryasar rushed from his base and traveled 60 miles to direct rescue workers to the place where his fiancee was trapped. After locating the restaurant where she had been dining at the time of the earthquake, he and the workers began digging through the rubble. They eventually found and freed her 18 hours after the restaurant had collapsed. During the rescue operation, the lieutenant told a photographer on the scene: “All I want is for her to live. I don’t care if she’s injured or not. It doesn’t matter. I just want her alive.”

It’s a story of amazing heroism and love—surpassed only by God’s heroic efforts to save us. You see, ransoming mankind and coming to our rescue was not simple or easy. Not only did Satan strongly oppose it at every turn, but we who were in need of rescue (which includes all of humanity) didn’t truly know how deeply we were buried under the rubble of a broken, sinful world (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But that didn’t hinder God. Though we turned away from Him and fell into the hands of the evil one (1 John 5:19), God lovingly continued to pursue us. Even though it cost Him dearly, He provided a way for us to live because of the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son (1 John 4:9).

Because of God’s great love, He saved us from our desperate plight and gave us our life back. As the apostle Paul put it: “He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Mark 11:20-33