Good morning…
I responded to the reader who wrote yesterday’s post, A Hand Reached Down. Her frightening memory as a child sparked a similar story from my childhood. “I too have a falling in the pool experience when I was a toddler,” I responded to her email. “Oddly, my memory was laced with a sense of complete peace. Sinking slowly. Looking up. Waiting for rescue.”
In 2014, this story from my childhood was the first story appearing in our Summertime Devotional, Depend On Me: Trusting God In Life’s Deep End.
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Day One: Our Bighearted Helper by Sue Allen
When I was a toddler watching my sister take swimming lessons, I slipped off the pool’s edge into water that was way-over-my-head. I vaguely remember sinking down peacefully, completely unaware of the danger I was in. My mom, on the other hand, was keenly aware of the alarming situation. She was perched to jump in fully clothed when the swimming instructor lifted me to safety.
At two years old, we are completely dependent upon the adults in our world. No doubting that fact. As we grow older, it is easy to forget that we are created to be completely dependent on our Creator. Through normal life changes, during times of extreme crisis, and in the day-in-and-day-out of everyday life, we are designed to depend on the saving power of our living LORD.
May the words of Psalm 86:2b-7 (MSG) become our daily prayer:
I’m depending on you!
You’re my God; have mercy on me.
I count on you from morning to night.
Give your servant a happy life;
I put myself in your hands!
You’re well-known as good and forgiving,
bighearted to all who ask for help.
Pay attention, God, to my prayer;
bend down and listen to my cry for help.
Every time I’m in trouble I call on you,
confident that you’ll answer.
May we cry out to our bighearted Helper, morning to night, as we sink into the deep waters of life.
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“Strangely,” I wrote our reader, “this first devotional of the summer appeared online on that Sunday, June 1st, 2014, the very weekend a young toddler died at a nearby neighborhood pool. God’s timing seemed sweetly laced with grace, even though we had preprogrammed the message weeks ahead. Somehow I hoped that the deep peaceful trust I described feeling in my heart as a child might comfort the heart of those grieving the loss of this little girl. If you give me permission to share your story one day, I might tell my story the very next morning.”
“Sue, I can’t believe we share such a story,” she replied. “After I sent the message to you, I thought that I should have included the remembrance that, although I knew I was in trouble, I also felt peaceful – time was still and quiet. It’s incredible to realize how close God is in times of distress. And it’s also incredible how He always uses your words to comfort others. Of course, you may share the story if you feel so moved. Thanks for everything!”
Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For I trust in You. Teach me the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You (Psalm 143:8, AMP).
…Sue…
