Two Florida teens swam out too far in the ocean and were saved by people in a boat

One imagines two boys because it's the sort of dumb thing boys do, but the photo shows a girlfriend/boyfriend.

There are a few photos here, the boat, the kids, the ocean.

They had skipped school on what they're calling "senior skip school day" and went out swimming in the ocean and were taken about two miles out.

There is a bit of irony that makes this story religious. The internet sites where this story is published are hyperbolic presenting the story as purely religious and exaggerating the situation in which two miles out is "middle of the ocean."

The teens, both seventeen years old, were helping each other keep at the surface but their strength was waning and they began to pray.

Smith said, "I cried out, 'if you really do have a plan for us, like, come on. Just bring something.'"

Then a boat sailing from South Florida to New Jersey spotted the teens in distress.

(Perhaps it was the boat's owner and not the boat that did the spotting)

Brown said, "I started swimming towards it. I was like, 'I'm going to get this boat. Just stay here. I'm going to get this boat. We are going to live.'"

Smith and Brown. That's all we're having for names.  Probably some law about naming underage. Let's just say, Smith and Jones.

Their prayers were answered in the form of a boat, A Godsend, named 'The Amen."

"The first words that came out of my mouth were, 'God is real.'"

(Most likely after "thank you," and "Man, you came just in time," and "We thought we were goners," and "Our parents are sure going to kill us."  But there's a story to report here and we've got our angle.)

The men in the boat brought the teens onboard and carried them safely to shore. The teens are thanking God and the men who saved them.

Smith said, "There is no other reason, no other explanation in the world other than God,"

Except coincidence, sea lanes, steady reliable sea lane traffic, common near shore routes, heavy boat traffic, and wealthy retirees.

Metaphysically speaking, God works on earth through angels. The kids thank God and they thank the men, but overlook the operating agency of angels.

We read stories like this all the time. Prayer really does call forth the angels and they really do rally to assistance and do God's work invisible to human sight.

I have my own such story about the power of prayer and it changed me permanently.

My favorite similar story is a rock climber in Hawaii, caught in the darkness and doomed. He was sliding down more than progressing forward and his situation worsening with each minute. He was dying right there on the hill. He would certainly have died without help, but with no chance of help appearing.

He called out for help and it came instantly. He reports that suddenly his exhausted legs were lifted for him and placed just so, not by his own effort, just so expertly, one after the other with speed and precision that he did not possess such it seemed he was literally flying up the slope of loose rock, over the sliding rocks. Something else was working his legs and placing his hands. He crawled up the mountain at great speed, faster than he could go by himself and with greater precision, to the top as if being lifted by angels. Much like holding a dog in the air who dog paddles as if in water. Something supernatural had happened, something beyond his own physical ability, and it came after he asked for it, after he prayed.

Thereafter, for the rest of his life, the man was certain of the truth and power of prayer. But he had to ask first, and ask for help with great emotion. That was the key to his prayer being answered.

If you make a half-ass prayer for assistance, it doesn't resonate, it cannot connect for insufficient power of signal.  It doesn't work. The prayer must be real. The prayer must be powerful. The situation must be right at the edge of disaster.