A Heart At Home With God

while my wife was busy in another part of the pool with our littlest one, another of our children (who was about four at the time), was busy playing with me in the shallow end of the pool while the place was filled with the laughter and splashing of dozens of people together in that large room. After we had been there awhile, I thought that we might take a rest and go and check on our other family members. When my son and I climbed out of the pool, I looked to see where my wife was so we could join her.

As soon as my gaze was bent elsewhere, I suddenly heard the slapping of little wet feet on the ground and when I looked back down, I saw that my son had zoomed off across the room along the edge of the pool towards his mother who was carrying our youngest while she walked through the water. I started after him, but just as I did so, he got to the deeper end and, without any hesitation at all, jumped in. I was running after him at this point and as I drew near to him, I could see him bobbing up and down in the water, his eyes above its surface but not quite able to get his nose up even though he was trying with all his might. That image is still burned into my mind. No one else seemed to notice him, but there he was… ready to drown if I hadn’t been racing towards him to pull him out of the water. His mother had also seen his plunge and was moving as quickly as she could towards him.

I jumped into the water too – much to the chagrin of those nearby who got splashed, but I didn’t care because my little son desperately needed me. I scooped him up out of the water and must have squeezed any water in his lungs out of him when I hugged him. After my wife and I made sure that he was all right and gave him the obligatory scolding (not that he really needed it anymore), we all climbed out together, having decided that we had all had as much fun in the water as we needed that day.

Maybe, in its own small way, the experience refreshed for me the deep urgency from which our heavenly Father regards men and women, boys and girls in our homes, our churches, and our communities.