Imagine this scene. You are on the Florida coast and you see an old man with curved shoulders, bushy eyebrows and bony features carrying a bucket of shrimp. He carries it to the end of the pier and looking up begins to throw handfuls of the bucket's contents into the air. In seconds he is surrounded by gulls. They land on his hat, on his shoulders and begin to eat the shrimp with great excitement. Even after the bucket is empty they linger, the old man and his feathered friends.

This happened every week in this particular part of the U.S.A until the death of the old man. His name was Eddie Rickenbacher, a famous World War II pilot. His plane, the 'Flying Fortress', went down in 1942 and no-one thought he would be rescued. The story is still well known of how he and his eight crew members escaped death by climbing into two rafts for thirty days. They fought thirst, the sun and nine foot sharks (their rafts were just eight feet long) but what nearly killed them was starvation - their rations were gone in just eight days.

Rickenbacher wrote that even on those rafts they would have a daily afternoon time of prayer. One day, after their devotions, Rickenbacher leaned back with his hat over his eyes and tried to sleep. Within moments he felt something perch on his head and he knew in an instant that it was a gull. But they were hundreds of miles from land. Where did it come from? He was also certain that if he didn't catch that gull he and his crew would die. Soon all the others on the two boats noticed the bird. No-one spoke, no-one moved. Rickenbacher quickly grabbed the bird and with thanksgiving they ate the birds flesh. They used the intestines as fish bait and survived.

Rickenbacher never forgot that visitor, that sacrificial guest and every week he went out on the pier with a bucket of shrimp to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

The apostle Paul wrote, 'For Christ's love compels us....' (2 Corinthians 5:14). The word 'compels' means literally, 'leaves me no choice.' Paul is saying, 'I have no choice but to respond to the love of Christ with my whole being - to say thank you, thank you, thank you!