Building with small stones: Day 2

Remember a story from your childhood. Think about why you still carry this story. What does this story say about God, or about you, or about truth?

For me: The first time I ever went to a swimming pool I was very young, probably not yet in school. But Sesame Street and Electric Company had taught me to read, and so I was able to read the long list of rules on the fence before going in the dressing room to change. Even so, I hurried, and came back out before anyone else. (My mother was speaking outside the fence with the woman who had invited our family to swim with theirs at their community pool.) I immediately ignored the very FIRST rule, which was not to go into the pool by yourself. I had never swum before, but I walked to the pool. I walked to the deep end of the pool. I got up on the diving board at the deep end of the pool. And jumped in. The women outside heard the splash, but each assumed the other had children who were capable swimmers. I was in trouble. I was going to die. It took a moment, but my mother and the other lady realized through their conversation that they were wrong about swimming children, and they rushed inside the fence. My mother jumped in fully clothed and pulled me out. I was fine, not even any need for cpr or anything like that. But I did think after how stupid I had been. Of course to jump in, that goes without saying, but once I was in the water, my childish reasoning told me, I was either going to sink or float. If I floated, no problem. If I sank, I had merely to walk along the bottom to the ladder and climb up. Of course, as an adult I have since recognized that's not the way it works. But I've never forgotten the story.

I probably still carry this story because the event was so traumatic, or at least DRAmatic. I think it has a lot to say to me. First, as James says, it's not enough to KNOW the rules if you don't DO the rules. Second, pride (in being able to read, in this case) can be dangerous. Third, it happens all the time that people can enter something that they can't exit. Fourth, God, like my mother, saved me when I couldn't save myself. Fifth, Jesus, like my mother, chose to jump in the water (the incarnation) with me to pull me out. Sixth, many may reason as I did, that with a better perspective and different actions they can save themselves, but that's not the way the world, or sin, works. Seventh, when you've been saved, really saved, you will never forget it, and you will tell about it often.