Ocean of love

 

When we lived in Papua New Guinea, an island north of Australia I learn to snorkel. As long as I stayed on top of the reefs, I felt pretty safe. The water was clear and warm and usually it was just the little fish that would swim close to shore.  

I would watch others swim out to the deep and I wanted to go with them, but fear held me back.  There is something safe about being able to touch ground when one wants to, so I played it safe time after time.   

Southern Illinois is my home ground, born and raised there. Nothing but corn fields, soybeans, and cows and small pond that we swam in as I was growing up.  In fact, I lost my engagement ring in a pond one night while swimming and it was never found.  Thankfully, my would-be husband thought enough of me to buy another one.  

Those ponds or lakes as some call them and even the mighty muddy Mississippi River did not come close to matching the depths of the ocean.  For me it was an all-new experience to swim in the beautiful ocean and I respected it and feared it as the same time.  

Finally, I got up the courage to swim out past the reef where the drop off was.  The fish were bigger, and I could not touch or see the bottom.  On the bottom, right past the reef was an old-World War II plane that divers go down and sit in and get their pictures taken.  I was told all you had to do was swim down a little way and you would be able to see it.  

As I waited to get up the courage to go deeper, I felt a huge fish brush up against me, I mean a huge one swim behind me.  Just as fast as the snap of the fingers he was gone and just that fast I was gone, making my way to the shore. I could not get there fast enough for I knew sharks were living in that part of the ocean and a few other big ones.  

My memory of that event has stayed with me, not because of the huge fish but that deepness I felt in that ocean past those reefs is embedded in my memory.  It's one thing to trust God to keep me safe as long as I can touch the ground but in the deepest part of the ocean, I never went back out that far.  I did not forget that war plane on the bottom either, but the feeling I would like to see it, is completely gone.  

We cannot see the depth of God's love, our human minds cannot grasp it, but my faith tells me it's true because He showed that love when His Son died on the cross for our sins.