My Ocean-Incident Savior

From a very young age, my adventures into the ocean were always accompanied by the same worried reminder from my father: don't get to far away from shore or you'll be caught in the water when the tide goes out.

It wasn't that my friend and I didn't heed this advice, we just weren't paying attention when it happened.  One moment we were standing just a short distance away from shore and the next we were being pulled away from it even as we tried to swim closer.  We were caught in the tide and our own meager attempts to swim back to shore were useless.

Thankfully, my father was not as careless as we had been.  He saw the two of us struggling in the waves and swam out to where we were.  His knowledge, skill, and stronger muscles allowed him to be successful where we had failed.  He returned us to the shore, frightened, tired, and shivering, but safe.

Throwing a towel over my shoulders, he enveloped me in a hug.  "It's okay," he assured me, knowing I had already learned my lesson.  "You're safe now."

God asks us to live in the undefined area that lies between this world and the next.  However, our sin nature is like a tide, always trying to pull us away from God.  It isn't that we want to do bad, it's just that one day we may wake up and realize how far we've fallen from what we had planned.

It is then that we will realize we do not have the strength it takes to get back to shore on our own.  We need someone to rescue us.  We need a Savior.  But God is always waiting, ready to swim out and haul us back to shore.  When he gets us back to safety, He will envelope us, hiding us in the shadow of His wings and comforting, "It's okay, you're safe with me now."

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