Found by God: The Rescued Airman, Amazing Grace, and the Joy of Being Found

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“We got him!” So dramatic was the jubilation by President Trump and others over the finding and rescue of a lost U.S. airman downed over hostile territory.

Mr. Trump made the dramatic call on his Truth Social account, as the missing US airmen was rescued from a mountain crevice deep inside a remote area of Iran (LaPorta, et al, 2026). The F–15 E pilot and his weapons-system officer safely ejected from their downed plane while conducting a mission during Operation Epic Fury.

The plane’s pilot was rescued within a few hours, but the weapons-system officer was hurt during his ejection from the aircraft. He hid in the Zagros Mountain range from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops, who had put a $60,000 bounty on his head (Reyes, 2026). The airman evaded Iranian forces, even as a significant manhunt was initiated to recover him. If the Iranian army could capture the missing officer and parade him before their cameras, they would score a huge propaganda victory.

What was so extraordinary about the rescue was the desolate area in which the airman was hiding. The U.S. Air Force Colonel climbed a 7,000-foot ridge, hid in a crevice in the mountains for safety, and submitted a short, unusual message over the radio: “God is good” (Reyes, 2026).

So how did they find him? The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deployed an incredible new device called a Ghost Murmur to locate the missing airman (Nelson, 2026b). This incredible technology uses long-range quantum magnetometry to find the electromagnetic signal of a human heartbeat (Nelson, 2026a). The barren desert landscape provided an ideal opportunity to utilize this high-tech device, which experts suggested was like trying to isolate one voice in a stadium — except that stadium was a thousand square miles of desert (Nelson, 2026b).

The name of the devise was coined because of how the tool is used — a “murmur” is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. “Ghost” refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared (Nelson, 2026a). Imagine what such an incredible tool could do, perhaps, to find others who are lost in a similar fashion.

Have you ever been lost? Do you remember how that felt? Most of us feel out of control, desperate to get things back in order. I have been lost in the woods. It was a horrible experience. The night before, a friend had shown me a beautiful vista just a few steps from the cabin in which we were staying. At least it seemed like a few steps. The next morning, up bright and early before the rest of the guests, I ventured out of the cabin to locate, once again, that beautiful view I had seen the day before. It seemed like it was only a few steps from the cabin. Was I heading in the right direction? Some four hours later, I was able to find my way out of the forest, literally three miles from where I started. But it was a horrible four hours! 

Have you ever been lost? Have you ever felt lost?

Author John Coleman has written an entire book about historic individuals who were disoriented, got lost, and needed help to be found by neighbors or by strangers (Coleman, 2020). Coleman identified famous individuals who chose to use nature for a vacation or for getting back in touch with the Earth — or with themselves. These stories were significant to Coleman because he identified with the shock that normal human beings have with being totally lost and their disorientation to nature. 

The scope of search-and-rescue efforts in the United States is often underestimated. Data from Yosemite National Forest Search and Rescue (Dotson, 2023) reveals an astonishing set of statistics: An average of 4,661 people become lost in wooded areas each year and require assistance — about 13 individuals every day. Nationwide, search-and-rescue teams are called out an estimated 50,000 times annually (Dotson, 2023). Some of the more famous rescue efforts are listed below:

Aron Ralston (2003): Ralston, an experienced mountaineer and mechanical engineer, while hiking alone in Utah’s Canyonlands, dislodged a boulder that trapped his arm. Unable to move after five days, he amputated his own arm with a multi-tool to survive, hiking seven miles before being found (Hawk, 2023).

Cody Clawson (2001): Clawson, a 13-year-old Scout lost near Yellowstone, survived 18 hours in the wilderness and used his belt buckle to signal for help. The reflection was spotted by pilot and “Star Wars” actor Harrison Ford (Morgan, 2025).

The concept of being lost and then found has a prominent place in Christian writing and in Scripture. The famous hymn, Amazing Grace, was a poem first penned in 1772 by John Newton, a former slave trader who became a pastor. Newton’s life was a series of events in which he became lost in debauchery or lost in moral decline but was given second chances (Turner, 2003). Newton survived shipwrecks, near drowning, being abandoned by his crew, and being nearly killed several times. On one occasion, Newton was lost in Africa on a hunting expedition. Just when he and the other hunters had resigned themselves to death, suddenly the moon appeared, and they were able to find their way back to their camp (Turner, 2003).

And yet with all of his close calls, Newton‘s heart remained hardened. The author Steve Turner wrote that no matter how many times Newton was rescued, he would relapse into his old habits. In his later life, in an act of penance and repentance, Newton wrote of his exploits and inspired the landlord of a local congregation to offer Newton a church position, from which he would later be appointed an Anglican minister (Turner, 2003). Newton would continue his writing to pen over 280 hymns, including “Amazing Grace,” the most famous hymn in the English language (Piper, 2018).

There is an interesting dichotomy to the story of the U.S. Air Force Colonel who was “lost” and then “found” by this incredible technology. While many of us might think we were the ones who were “found” and that this airman was “lost;” in actuality, it was the badly wounded weapons-system officer who struggled more than a mile up a mountain to boost his rescue radio signal and proclaim to his search team that he was found — and found by God! In his radio message, strange to all of those who at first received it, he asserted, “God is good!” While this airman was lost to the rest of us, he realized he was found by God and, ultimately, God’s love and mercy would allow him to be found by a world waiting to hear about his rescue.

The same would apply to all of us. While we may think that we are found, unless we are found by God, as John Newton wrote, we are the ones who are lost.

The author JRR Tolkien had a passion for words, which would often cause him to create different words that would apply to different circumstances (Nankervis, 2023). It did not seem to Tolkien that there were sufficient English words to address a sudden, last-minute, unexpected change in a storyline that took a story from tragedy to unexpected good or joy. So, Tolkien invented his own word: eucatastrophe (pronounced you-catastrophe). The author was convinced the best stories involved a sudden twist, a last-minute unexpected turn from tragedy to triumph — something we might rephrase as “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat” (Nankervis, 2023) — or from being totally lost to wonderfully found!

That was the feeling for so many of us when we learned the weapons-system officer was snatched from a perilous mountain crevice — rescued by his jubilant fellow servicemen and servicewomen! That was undoubtedly the feeling when Cody Clawson was plucked out of the wilderness by his rescuers after being spotted by Harrison Ford! And it is the only way to describe the transformation of John Newton from a wretched, despicable slave trader to the pastor who, along with William Wilberforce, eradicated slavery from Great Britain — eucatastrophe!  

The despair of being lost is suddenly replaced with an indescribable joy: “I have been found – eucatastrophe!”  We replace despair, sorrow, and feelings of failure with the knowledge of God’s love and the lifting of the weight of sin off our shoulders. Suddenly, the lost person is found, and there is unimaginable joy, relief, and satisfaction. Please, today, consider how “God is good” and confess your lostness and sin to Him; and be found in Him (Philippians 3:7-10 ESV). Let God’s holy angels rejoice (Luke 15:10) and proclaim, “We got him!”

“I once was lost but now am found!”

Sources:

Coleman, J.T. (2020, August 12). Ten Curious Cases of Getting Lost in the Wilderness. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ten-curious-cases-getting-lost-wilderness-180975495/

Dotson, R. (2023, June 30). Statistics of Getting Lost and Found. Survival Dispatch [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://survivaldispatch.com/statistics-of-getting-lost-and-found/

Hawk, R. (2023, July 23). Episode #537: Aron Ralston – The Incredible Story Of The Hiker Who Cut Off His Own Arm After Being Trapped Under a Boulder For 5 Days (127 Hours). Learning Leader [Podcast]. Retrieved from https://learningleader.com/aronralston/.

Laliberte, M. (2025, June 25). 6 Missing Person Mysteries That Were Miraculously Solved. Readers’ Digest: Knowledge: Facts [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/list/missing-people-found/.

LaPorta, J., Gazis, O., Watson, E., Jacobs, J., & Tanyos, F. (2026, April 5). Missing U.S. crew member from downed fighter jet rescued in Iran, Trump says. CBS News [News Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/missing-u-s-crew-member-from-downed-fighter-jet-rescued-in-iran-sources-say/.

Morgan, A. (2025, May 12). The Heartwarming Story of Cody Clawson, The 13-Year-Old Boy Scout Who Was Rescued By Harrison Ford. All That’s Interesting [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://allthatsinteresting.com/cody-clawson.

Nankervis, L. (2023, December 11). The Eucatastrophe of Emmanuel. The Parkway Church [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.theparkwaychurch.com/blog/the-eucatastophe-of-emmanuel.

Nelson, S. (2026a, April 7). The secret, never-before-used CIA tool that helped find airman downed in Iran: ‘If your heart is beating, we will find you.’ NY Post [News Blog]. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2026/04/07/us-news/ghost-murmur-a-never-used-secret-tool-deployed-to-find-lost-airman-in-iran-in-daring-mission/. 

Nelson, S. (2026b, April 8). Trump confirms CIA ‘Ghost Murmur’ tool was ‘very important’ to find airman in Iran — as experts debate how it works. NY Post [News Blog]. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2026/04/08/us-news/trump-confirms-cia-ghost-murmur-tool-was-very-important-to-find-airman-in-iran-as-experts-debate-how-it-works/.

Piper, J. (2018, December 18). God Saved a Wretch Like Him. Desiring God [Web Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-saved-a-wretch-like-him.

Reyes, R. (2026, April 6). The three words downed airman told rescuers that left them fearing they were headed into Iranian trap. NY Post [News Blog]. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2026/04/06/world-news/the-three-words-downed-airmen-told-rescuers-that-left-them-fearing-they-were-headed-into-iranian-trap/.

Turner, S. (2003). Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song. New York: HarperCollins. Notes on the book retrieved from the Library of Congress Collection Notes – https://www.loc.gov/collections/amazing-grace/articles-and-essays/creation-of-amazing-grace/.