Little Swimmer

Today while I watched Miss Littles swim I realized that we have to learn to swim. Sure you can put a baby in the pool and it will instinctively hold it’s breath but only for a short time then it will drown. I watched her as she swam across the pool smiling with pride at her accomplishments of learning to breath at just the right time in just the right way with her arms and legs working together as one great little fish making the water its home.

Watching her made me think of God and how we are born with Him in us. He knew us before we were born heck He knew us before our parents knew each other, we were His. So as children we might have realized that God was God and we might have thought we knew who He was but we didn’t really know because we hadn’t learned yet how to love. Sure on a basic level we knew love like Miss Littles knows love for Uncle Mark and those around her but she has yet to test that love. She hasn’t learned all of the moves of love. The heart breaks, the highs, the lows, and the wonders. She doesn’t know to put this arm here, that foot there, paddle, and breath. She hasn’t learned to read this and pray and to ask for forgiveness of sin. She doesn’t know yet of God’s endless love. She hasn’t been tested nor has she tested it.

I do believe that we are tested.

I knew a woman who said that she was nearer to God when she lived in another country with maids and didn’t have an autistic child. She had lots of time to be with God. I believe that she was further from God, living without the struggles of life. At seven Miss Littles has faith that she is safe in that pool because she can see the instructor. If she starts to sink an arm is there ready to pull her up. If we as adults start to sink we must swim our way back to Him, sure I believe He gives us the ability to get to Him but we must do some of the work to find the safety of His arms.

We swim by faith.

Now I know that you science smart types can explain exactly how we can swim without sinking and how we can rest on our backs without finding the bottom of the pool. However, it’s by faith that we enter that water. And once we figure out that we can stay afloat then we are fine with the diving board and the big slide we know that the water can be mastered. We learn to have faith in God because we know the world around us can be mastered.

Sometimes we all go under and we take in a bit of water but because we’ve learned how to have faith and love in God we can stay afloat.

So tonight I take a big breath of air and just keep swimming.