THE CONTINUATION OF THE SERIES OF BLOGS ENTITLED "GRACE" WILL RESUME AFTER THIS BLOG. I NEEDED TO BREAK THE INTENSITY OF THIS THREAD AS IT IS VERY HARD FOR ME TO WRITE ABOUT MY PAST. CHURNING UP AND RETHINKING ABOUT LONG SINCE BURIED, BAD MEMORIES TENDS TO PUT ME INTO A NEGATIVE STATE OF MIND AND I NEED TO COME UP FOR AIR EVERY NOW AND THEN...I WANTED TO POST THIS SHORT STORY THAT I WROTE BECAUSE I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR WHAT GOD HAS ALLOWED ME TO SEE OF THIS WORLD. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE STORY.....

PSALM 104:24 How many are your works, O LORD!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.

²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

JOB 12:7 But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

⁸ or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
or let the fish of the sea inform you.

⁹ Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?

¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every creature
and the breath of all mankind.

A Tale of Two Divers

35 years ago this past July four very excited 15 year olds donned their scuba gear and jumped off the back of their dive boat into the turquoise colored ocean. They were anchored over a very small patch of coral called Coffin’s Patch. Coffin’s Patch was well inside the almost continuous stretch of coral that runs the length of the Florida Keys and was a great second dive site as it was in shallow water, and, since it was off the beaten path off the normal popular dive sites, usually the only sea creatures swimming about were its own inhabitants.

The divers had been diving all day and this was their last dive before heading to dinner. They were tired to be sure but, like most exuberant kids of that age, they wouldn’t know it until they reached the dock and had to drag their equipment and their thoroughly water logged bodies off the boat. This was their first time diving on Coffin’s Patch and it wouldn’t be their last as the boat’s Captain, think Captain Ron of the Curt Russell movie with the same name, had decided this was a perfect playground for these intrepid young summer camp divers as it allowed him, “Capt. Ron” to stay in the boat and have a beer while the little fish swam below with-in relative close proximity to the boat (he could watch their bubbles if not even see them as the water was so clear).

Immediately upon entering the water the four aquanauts headed straight down to the reef and off to the side of some very high brain coral that reached to only 15 feet or so below the surface. As they formed into pairs with two in front of the other they decided, in a group kind of way, to swim over the top of the upper reaches of the aforementioned coral. Just as the first pair scaled the heights they immediately, and excitedly, turned about face with feet and arms moving at high speed. The second pair of aquanauts were almost to the top themselves when they met the about faced pair head on. As the four of them were trying to avoid a collision with each other, a black tipped reef shark, with accompanying remora, swam not 4 feet over the their heads; hence the reason for the first pair’s rapid u turn in the first place. So, for a split second, four people, a shark, and a remora occupied a very small section of the great blue sea and though man may be on top of the food chain, in this case you were dealing with boys and they figured they were on the menu.

At the merging of the boys and the shark the underwater flyboys went brown smoke on and executed a fleur de lis that only the Navy Blue Angels aerobatic team would be proud of. Each boy, trailing thinning smoke remnants, headed in a completely different direction to the other and though much bravado was spoken at campfires in the past of how they would protect each other in case of shark attack, each boy when confronted with actual possibility of being an hors-d’oeuvre quickly forgot such talk of bravado and sought to outdistance the other from the menacing sea creature.

One boy headed to the northeast and didn’t stop panic kicking until coming upon the edge of the main reef whereupon it seemed to abruptly drop off into the abyss, but in reality it was only 15 feet or so. As he approached the edge he finally managed a glance back, wondering if the shark had chased him this far, or decided to go to go after one of the others; in reality the shark swam blithely on by the boys, most likely not even aware it had literally scared the crap out of them.

Relieved he was not being pursued this boy now noticed the absolute beauty of the reef he was now swimming over. The drop off he approached gave way to a much lower reef system but with an almost rectangular bit of sand in the middle, measuring about 40 feet in length; it immediately reminded him of a runway.

He had a lot of air in his tank remaining, despite his attempt at an undersea speed record, and though his buddies were nowhere to be found, he decided to pretend to be an airplane. He “landed”, his arms outstretched to each side, on the runway and stopped. Given the thickness of the water verses the air, his ground roll was remarkably short. He taxied back to the beginning of the runway, facing the end where the coral jutted the lowest upwards, and kicking furiously applied full power for take-off. In a relatively short distance he was airborne, the tilting of his head upwards towards the surface providing a modicum of lift, but, enough to enable “flight”. He climbed at full power but once vertical clearance of the coral at the far end of the runway was assured he began to level out and accelerate; the acceleration being announced by the backward movement of his arms to his side, in the same fashion as a swing wing fighter jet. With this take off complete he banked hard to the right to come back around for another landing, though this one much more disciplined than the first. Remembering the flying lesson instructions he had been getting prior to his coming to camp, he used the exact same procedures he had been taught and endeavored to hone his skills while in this underwater paradise and impromptu classroom of sorts. Round and round for minutes on end he flew. Sometimes he immediately returned for another pattern, at other times he took a break in the routine to fly amongst the many varieties of coral and play as if he was fighter flying a low level mission. Fish darted to and fro and dodged his “air to air” dog fighting attacks with innate ease and no doubt wondered what in Neptune’s name had descended upon their secluded, and heretofore quiet, patch of heaven.

With his air down to 500 psi this land creature was now “minimum fuel” and had to return to his aircraft carrier. As he surfaced he took one last look upon his airfield an bid it adieu, not knowing if he would ever see it again, but thanking God for his lovely little play session.

35 years hence, and a few months, this same boy had now grown into a man. His days of practicing flying, both under water and in the actual air, had eventually taken him into many aircraft and airports around the world; but in as much as he loved the sky he was always drawn to the sea, if not under it, for rehabilitation and rejuvenation.

On this particular day he was diving off the coast of a small island located in the same sea as where his first underwater flying began. He was in much deeper water though and equipped with the latest in scuba gear. He was as sophisticated in personality as he was equipment, the years hence seeing to the aging process of experience in both physical look and temperament.

60 feet down he cruised a relatively deep underwater reef with his dive guide. It was akin to swimming in the Grand Canyon, with ledges and steep walls defining, if not dictating, their course and direction. The temptation was too great, as memories of days long, long since passed flooded his immediate thoughts he held his arms to his sides and pretended to be aged fighter airplane following his flight lead, gliding under ledges and ridges, dodging long dead coral mounds and still living new bits, and following at times the contour of the very bottom itself when sand was most prevalent. After minutes of gleeful flying they abruptly landed and stopped to the entrance of a cave, actually it was one of many and made famous by Jacques Cousteau in the 60’s when he did a National Geographic special from this very spot; sleeping shark cave. It seemed like light years since this “boy” had seemingly swum for his life after sighting his first shark, now, on this day he was sticking his head into a cave, seeking them out and looking at them where they lay….isn’t God wonderful and life amazing….

^{PSALM 96:10} Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

¹² let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

¹³ they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples in his truth.