Blog Posts

My mother shuddered when recalling the following true incident.  To be honest, so do I:

Because my dad was from Seattle, we visited some summers when I was young.  Aunt Kathryn’s house, where we stayed, was close to Lake Washington.  Someone had the idea of taking some of us for a ride in a small boat.  So off we went, my dad, two brothers, several adult cousins, and myself.  For some reason, there hadn’t been a thought of outfitting us with life preservers.  And, the boat was overcrowded.  Might you guess where I am going with this?

Once out far from shore, a large sailboat approached.  Instead of our captain heading perpendicular into the waves, he positioned the boat parallel.  The waves grew bigger and bigger.  To this day, I cannot recall the boat tipping over, but it did!  All of us spilled into the cold water, which is a couple of hundred feet deep!  I did not know how to swim, being about six years old.  My brothers knew how, but at most, in a basic way.

Something I do recall is the cold water and light shimmering through it—beautiful!  I paddled in one direction, hoping it was to the surface.  Uh, oh.  It wasn’t, so I then paddled in the opposite direction, but still did not surface!  As I began to worry, I was pulled by my hair by a strong hand!  Thankfully, it was my dad’s and incredibly, all of us climbed onto the bottom of boat which was facing up.  Before long, the sailboat did a U-turn and came back for us.  

This account brings to mind another kind of rescue—one that is by an unseen hand, perhaps, yet giving us back the breath of life.  I invited Christ into my life at about age 13, but like many of us, there were times that I rationalized behavior that was not of Him.  The rescue had its pain, just like the hand grabbing me by my hair.  But it did not take long for me to see and experience God’s strength and steady love.  So grateful for both rescues.