Grace

Grace

Well there I was, after a hard week of working I was with the rest of the camp white water rafting. I had been anticipating this all week. So first our guide Summer went over all the commands with us, like “All forward” and “All back”. Pretty simple right? The next thing I knew I was on the raft in a level IV rapid. Summer yelled “All forward!” We all paddled forward and just missed a huge boulder. “One forward! One more forward!” shouted Summer. Suddenly my foot lost grip in the seat and at the same moment we hit a hole. The boat jerked upwards, I was ejected from the boat and landed probably 5 feet away. I raised my hands above my head out of the water in hope that someone would see me. I remember things while I was in the water, even though it was only for about thirty seconds. I remember thinking “Where’s the air?” And taking a breath of nothing but water. I think that was the scariest moment of my entire life. After it seemed like forever the guide of another raft pulled me up out of the water. I got a good gulp of air then back down under the water again. The guide had fallen out of his boat to get me another breath of life. Thank God for him! Summer had turned the raft around and grabbing my hands she pulled me to the safety of the little blue raft.

And to think just that morning we were talking about grace and suffering, how when you are suffering God shows you grace. I remember asking one of the campers that night what she thought grace and suffering had to do with each other. And she answered, “Well I think it really just clicked for me. I mean when you were in the water, you were suffering and then God showed you grace by allowing you to be pulled up.” I think that’s exactly what grace is.