“The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned,” (Psalm 34:22).

Recently, a Charlotte museum welcomed an US Airways Airbus A320 that just three years earlier made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York. You remember it. It is the reason why so many of us pray more fervently when we board an airliner today. It pointed out to me just how right the Apostle James really was when he wrote: “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away,” (James 4:14)

When they boarded their flight, there was really nothing remarkable about any of the 155 crew members and passengers. Like most of us, they simply were going about their days, flying to destinations for business appointments or to see family members, return to school or, perhaps, go on well-deserved vacations.

Just as the jet took off, all of those plans changed. A flock of birds flew across the airliner’s flight path. At least one bird was sucked into each of its two engines, knocking both out.

The pilot, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, had seconds to make a decision. Air traffic controllers offered to direct him to any of the area’s airports. But the plane didn’t have to the speed needed to make a safe landing. Sullenberger pointed his plane to the Hudson, intending to ditch.

In those few seconds, a controller asked for crucial information: “I need souls on board.”

Declared the pilot: “155 souls on board.”

What an interesting exchange that was during a dramatic turn in events. Suddenly, ordinary was extraordinary. Passengers turned into “souls.”

The truth is the passengers weren’t headed to destinations unknown. They were headed into eternity. We don’t often see this spiritual truth as dramatically portrayed as it was in this exchange; but every day we leave our homes, we are headed towards eternity.

Our country enjoys more freedom that any country in the world. We treasure our right to free speech but will not invoke it to share our faith with others. I find it strangely ironic that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending that right, yet, we will not exercise it to help save one life. Our silence is deadly.

We need to keep in mind that our friends might look like us, but there is something different about them on the inside. Jesus analogized this principle in the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13. He acknowledged that wheat and chaff look alike on the outside and actually grow side by side. But he promised that the day would come when they would be separated and judged, not by their outward appearance, but by what they had on the inside. “He who has ears, let him hear,” Jesus said. (Matthew 13:43)

The Rev. Billy Graham once said: “God will never send anybody to hell. If man goes to hell, he goes by his own free choice. Hell was created for the devil and his angels, not for man. God never meant that man should go there.”

We need to see our friends, neighbors and co-workers for what they are. They are “souls” and as such are headed for eternity, just like us. The only difference is they might have a different destination because they are making a wrong choice.

Write to Mike Ruffin at mike.ruffin@devotions.com. His website is devotions.com.