What could have been one of my most terrifying childhood memories has become one of my most treasured moments because someone decided I was worth it.
At ten years old I was already comfortable swimming in the deep end of the pool. In fact, I loved it! One of my favorite games with a friend was to push ourselves from the surface to the bottom of the pool and then back up. We had spent summer mornings at swimming lesson for the past several years. I knew my way around the water and had a great time splashing, swimming and playing water games.
My dad has always wanted to see as much of the world as he can. When you have a family, traveling can be cost-prohibitive, but Dad found that renting a camper for our summer vacations gave us the opportunity to go farther on a smaller budget. One of his favorite activities was planning our itinerary and determining which new places we would visit.
My ten-year-old summer we took our first trip to the Midwest to visit with some college friends of Mom and Dad. They had a really cool house with a gas fireplace that opened into the rooms on either side of it. For someone who had never seen a gas fireplace before it was awesome! The house was situated in a community that had a pool and tennis courts and other recreational activities.
One afternoon we all went to the rec center, Mom and Dad, their friends, their friends' kids, my siblings and me. We kids had no complaints about playing in the pool while the adults watched tennis in an adjoining area. The adults were within easy distance of the kids, but didn't feel the need to be watching us every moment. We were all old enough and comfortable enough in the water.
This pool had something that made it especially enticing: A water slide! Our family had a pool, but not a slide. Every one of us got in line for turn after turn, sliding and splashing into the water. We relished the excitement of whishing down the slippery slide, hanging in the humid air and then plunging into the cool, chlorinated wet.
I had been down the slide a number of times without incident. But this time when I hit the water, I became disoriented and couldn't find which way was up. The taste of chlorine filled my mouth. I was flailing my arms trying to find my floating balance and heard myself making unintelligible noises. "Help!" I realized it was my voice calling out.
Through my panicked splashing I saw my Dad turn and start running toward me. Before anyone had time to think, he dove into the water, fully dressed - glasses, watch, sneakers and all -, and pulled me to the side of the pool. We both got out dripping, and out of breath.
One thing you need to know is that my dad never learned to swim as a kid. He had learned as an adult and, for all intents and purposes, was a novice swimmer himself at the time of my rescue. He didn't hesitate. What he was wearing didn't matter. Getting wet wasn't a hindrance. He willingly plunged in because, to him, I was worth it.
We never really sat down and talked about the incident. I still don't know what was going through his head. But his action communicated all that I needed to know then and still speaks now.
Maybe my dad could have rescued me differently. He could have held out a pole for me to grab a hold of and pulled me to safety. He could have coached me and helped me do it myself. But he didn't. He made a choice to put me first at his own risk.
God could have chosen to leave us in our sin. He could have let us sink under the weight of it. Left us flailing about, lost, disoriented. But he didn't. He decided that you and I were worth it, so he made the choice to recklessly abandon Himself to our rescue in the person of Jesus Christ.
Maybe you feel abandoned and alone. You wonder if God really loves you. "Does He really see me?" Any time I might begin to question my dad's love for me all I have to do is remember him running toward me and risking his dignity to rescue me. If you question God's love for you, all you have to do is remember Jesus Christ, risking His deity to rescue you through His life as a man and His death on the cross.
When we think of His sacrifice as something He did for everyone it's easy to minimize ourselves out of the picture. You know what I mean. "He did it for everyone and I just happen to be on the edge." He did do it for everyone, but he saw each face as He did.
He saw me. He saw you. Because. Dear One, He believed You were worth it. Really.
Key thought: God thinks you are worth it.
A Scripture to consider: God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5 NLT
A YES challenge: Do you diminish your worth in God's eyes? Take some time to meditate on His willingness to risk all for you.
Prayer: Father, it's hard for me to fully accept just how much you love me. Knowing that Your sacrifice was for everyone keeps me from making it personal. Help me to realize that You love me as an individual, not part of the collective. Help me to accept that You believe I was worth the risk, worth the sacrifice. Help me to see myself as worth it because You think I'm worth it. Amen.