I know this is a strange time of the year to talk about life guards and nearly drowning, but I was just thinking about a vacation my family and I went on about eight years ago. We took the kids to Disneyland and had several other fun things planned, but all they wanted to do was go to the beach. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I finally realized that it was stupid to spend hundreds of dollars every day going to cool places and seeing new things if the kids didn’t really want to go (and yes I’m a tight wad). So we spent the rest of the trip going to the beach.
One day my youngest son Dylan (who was 11 years old at the time) and I were swimming in the ocean. Before I knew it, we were too far away from the beach and the currents kept us from getting back to shore. We tried for several minutes to swim back to shore, but we weren’t getting anywhere. We were just swimming in place.
I was starting to get tired and the thought popped into my head, “If Dylan gets tired and reaches out to grab me, we are both going to sink.” I realized that we would both die. I got scared, tried to swim even harder, got even more tired and realized that I wasn’t going to make it back to shore. All I could think was that I really didn’t want to die and I especially didn’t want my young son to die.
About that time I looked up and the life guard had swamp out to us and he was close enough that we could hear him. He asked if we needed help. I told him that I did. So he grabbed me and pulled me safely back to shore. When he first got to us, he asked Dylan if he needed help too. Dylan said he was alright and the little rascal swam all the way back to shore unaided.
I was so embarrassed when I got to shore, but I was thankful that I was saved. I really was in trouble out there in the ocean. I joke that I was “baywatched” during our trip to California. Like I said, it’s a strange time of the year to think about this, but it recently came to mind.
Then I thought about the Bible verse 1 John 5:12, “And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.”
A life guard in 2004 kept me from drowning. He saved my life that day. In 2007 I cried out to Jesus and He saved me from eternal damnation. God opened my eyes and I realized that I was a sinner, dying in my sins. There was nothing I could do to change that on my own. I asked Jesus to save me. I turned from my sins and put my complete trust in Him. Now I have life eternal. Jesus is the ultimate life guard. Have you asked Him to save you? Is Jesus your true life guard?