Saved

It was an ordinary day at a nice, quiet sandy beach on Lake Winnipesaukee. We were having fun in the water. Near us were a few high school aged boys having fun, too. All of the sudden I heard - he's hasn't come up - he hasn't come up! One of the boys, a lifeguard rushes into the water. They pull up a friend. He and his friends were diving off a metal raft floating in our swimming area. They pull him onto shore and start CPR. Then, a man comes flying down the steps toward him, yelling "call 911." He takes over. He keeps asking, "how long was he down, how long was he down."

A fun vacation for a group of friends turns into a nightmare. You can feel the panic in the air. Several people have 911 on their cell phones. The friends are in total shock. They don't know what to do. They run up to the road to look for emergency vehicles and run back. You can just feel the desparation.

After a few moments the man beats the boy's back, getting water out of his lungs. A few more moments pass - the man says "we have a heartbeat and spontaneous breathing." A sigh of relief, for the moment. But where is the ambulance? It seems to be taking forever. Police come down. They really can't do much more. Finally, the ambulance comes, with the EMT. The man tells them he is a paramedic and what the situation is. They put an oxygen mask on him and raise his legs onto a chair. They eventually get him on a stretcher and to the hospital.

The boys are shell-shocked. Their friend was not breathing. Almost drowned. Even though he's in an ambulance, there must be questions. Will he survive? Has there been any damage?

From that moment and for the rest of the day, there was a part of us praying for this boy. Thoughts go through my head. What would have happened if he died? What about his parents? What about his friends? It is an absolutely horrifying thought. We all know that teenagers by nature have the illusion that they are immortal. Perhaps more so with boys than girls.

The next day, we go to the beach. The boy was there, looking fine, yet very shy and embarrassed. The man who saved him was there. He asked us if we were there during the incident. We said yes and told him that we were praying for him. The man thanked us. He wanted us to know that the boy was alright. They were going out to celebrate tonight. What a celebration. A celebration of life! He could have been dead, but thanks to the boy and the man, he is alive. He said the boy's body temperature at the hospital was 91 degrees. He was fine, now. He made a few jokes about keeping him away from the water. You could still hear the anxiety beneath the joke.

Afterwards, I remembered what a friend on the Cape Cod told me when I remarked on how beautiful the ocean looked. "Beautiful and deadly," he said. He talked about the drownings that can always be expected on the Cape during the summer season. Every year, people on vacation die.

The ancient Israelites were terrified of the ocean. It was the place where evil dwelt. Demons lived there. Being on a boat on the ocean or even on a lake was a dangerous proposition. Water represented chaos and evil to them. I never thought of Lake Winnipesaukee as a place of chaos and evil. It is far too beautiful. But it is deep. Chaos and death can and does happen.

Yet on further reflection I thought to myself, this is what it really means to be saved. Sure I have seen people saved in hospitals and other places. But these were places where emergency people were within minutes from saving the person. There did not seem to be the panic that we felt that day. On that beautiful somewhat remote beach on a lake, in a small town with limited emergency resources, the stakes seem higher.

The word "saved" is one of the most common in Christian faith. It is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus saves. Through Jesus, God gives us salvation. Are you saved? Jesus is our Lord and Savior. Think of the hymns with salvation in them. Unfortunately, the word saved can be used so much, it's real meaning often fades away. It can get so abstract, removed from daily life.

On that beach, I saw someone being saved. It was a terrifying incident. The fact that the lifeguard and paramedic happened to be there meant the difference between life and death for that boy. He could have been dead, but, thanks to them, he was alive. It was not a life cut short at 15 or 16. His potential, his future, his life was saved. His parents and friends were saved from grief too deep to know.

This is what being saved means. That is what Jesus our Savior is all about. We could have been - should have been- dead. But Jesus came and died so that we might live. It is absolutely amazing grace. Jesus came into our lives, perilously on the brink, and rescued us. That is cause for celebration - a celebration that should be happening every Sunday morning, every day of our life!

At the end of the parable of the prodigal son, the "good son" asks the father why he is giving a huge party for the "bad son," after he took his inheritance and wasted it away. The father replies, "your brother was lost, but now is found. He was dead, but is now alive." This is the celebration that happens in heaven every time someone is "saved." It must have resembled that party those boys had with the man who rescued them.