DEACON’S BEACON
Meditation from the Swimming Pool
It’s summer, one of a teacher’s favorite times of the year. We used to have a swimming pool which I enjoyed quite a bit. You wouldn’t expect to see God’s hand very much in a swimming pool but sometimes you do.
When we first bought our house, it had been empty for awhile and the pool decidedly neglected except by hundreds of frogs. Knowing that we wanted to use the pool, we began to clean it out. The frogs had no idea of the coming catastrophe. We took pool nets and captured as many frogs as we could that had been happily living on the pool cover. We put them in empty five-gallon paint buckets and hauled them to the stream down the next block where we exiled them, hopefully to safe and comfortable homes. Then we took the cover off. A few frogs spilled into the pool, so out came the nets and again we caught as many as we could. These also went into exile down the stream. Finally, only six frogs remained in the pool and it was time to pour in the chemicals which would change the pool from a slimy green habitat to a lovely blue pool. This would also kill the frogs. We were concerned for the frogs and wished that we could change ourselves into frogs for just a few minutes. Then we could hop into the pool, let the frogs know that we did not want to hurt them but that life as they knew it was about to end.
It was at that moment that we realized that was very much what Jesus had done. He had become one of us for a while, coming to live with us to tell us about God’s love for us in words and actions that we would understand. He wanted to let us know how God wished for us to live and give us the opportunity to accept God’s love and grace.
Well, we could not become frogs and we could not forgo the chemicals. So we added the chemicals and stood by with nets. Within a few seconds of adding the chemicals, frogs began floating to the top of the pool. With our nets we caught three and washed them quickly under running water. They survived and joined their friends in the stream. Three other frogs however, kept swimming away from the nets into deeper water until they died. Just as some people choose to reject Jesus, heading deeper and deeper into sin, unwilling to accept the help of a loving Savior.
This event has stayed with me, a reminder of what we needed and what Jesus was willing to do for us. Submitted by Julia Harrod, Deacon