Snorkeling

Snorkeling is like prayer, in a way, I thought.  Recently I was able to enjoy the amazing experience of snorkeling in the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.  Since in Europe we used to swim enthusiastically in any open body of water, I was able to take to the ocean like the duck to water, so to speak.  We entered from a boat and  it was easy and it was fun, though I worried a little about sharks.  It was so easy, even a lady who had never swum before and who had brought a wet-suit managed to do it with proper flotation devices.

So, you stick your head under water and this incredible world is right there!  You couldn't see it, at all,  from the boat.  You can't see, either,  it if you lift your head back above the water.  But right here with your face in the water, there is indeed an abundance of sea-life--the colorful fish, the school of fish, the longish ones just under the surface...  There would be no way of imagining it if you did not see it with your own eyes.  And your body is floating at the interface between two worlds.  Lift your head and you see nothing but empty sky and water.  Drop your head and there is an entire zoological miracle.  It is a matter of your eyes just being above or below the surface.

I envision prayer like that now.  There is the visible world, in which I  function.  There is the invisible world which I can enter by word and prayer.  The invisible world is just as close at hand.  In my mind and soul I can duck in an out of these, living right at the interface of both worlds, part of both.

For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;"  (Acts 2)

Through Christ, I have access to the ocean of God's love.  I can call on him any time and he hears.  I can call on him any time and ask for help and forgiveness.  I can call on him any time and he will make paths for me to walk in.  I can call on him any time and he will strengthen me with his grace.