DEEP and WIDE

by Debbie Allen

Bracing himself up against a twisted pine tree, Shannon, former sniper and and ex-marine, aligned the scope on his gun with his intended target’s head. Having completed five tours-of-duty in Afghanistan, his instincts were always on high alert. Like a predator waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on his unsuspecting prey; Shannon waited for his target to step further out into the meadow, just a few hundred feet away.  Slow and steady, Shannon pulled his trigger and watched his victim fall to the ground.  Pulling himself back behind the pine boughs to reload, he listened to the chaos which ensued on the other end.

“Get down…enemy fire… Zeke’s been hit!”   

Mustering a half-smile, Shannon thought to himself how many lives he’d taken overseas without ever having known their names.   “It was probably better that way…easier.” he concluded silently.

“It came from that direction!” another voice cried out from the meadow, shooting a few rounds of their own back into the forest in retaliation. 

By the time Shannon repositioned himself to take another shot, he realized that he, too, had been hit.    Looking down at his foot, he saw a pool of red streaming down into his boot.  Angry now, that such random, enemy fire ever found him in the first place; he aimed with deadly accuracy at the enemy once more. Seeing them advancing in his direction, he fired off three more rounds in rapid succession.  Each one found its mark, leaving three more of the enemy writhing in pain, or motionless and face-down in the tall grasses of a once peaceful meadow on a Colorado mountainside.

This battle… The Battle of Bachelor Hill… never made it into the American History books but, it lives on in the memories of those few men who fought it.   Though each, in his own way, became a casualty of war that day… all of these young men rose from the battlefield at the end of that day to regale their own bloody tales of both defeat and heroism; as they sat around a mutual campfire in a Grand Lake campground.  The blood spilled in this battle came only from the red and blue paint-balls being shot back and forth between my son, Trevor, his brother, and three friends.  All of them joined this mountain getaway to celebrate Trevor’s week-long, bachelor party/camping trip.  This, however, wasn’t the only battle Trevor ended up fighting before the week was over.

Early the next morning, Trevor and his friends, Shannon, Zeke, and Aaron, hiked up to Grand Lake with the idea of swimming out to a little island a few hundred feet out from the shoreline.  Zeke took one look at it and backed out of the challenge that he himself had originally initiated. Shannon was the first to jump in the water without giving it much thought because…once a marine always a marine!  Trevor, like the others, was sleep-deprived and hung-over; but he jumped full-force, into the stinging cold, lake water; attempting to swim like a marine towards the island. About halfway across, reality hit him. He wasn’t a marine.  What was he trying to prove!  His limbs felt like lead. Panicked, his breathing grew shallow and His arms flailed in the frigid waters; now beginning to pull him under.  

“Someone help… me…I… I’m going to die” he cried out silently, choking and sputtering.  Still thrashing the waters in a desperate attempt to stay afloat; Trevor’s hand brushed against something in the water.  About to go under again, he spotted something protruding from the water near him.  Grabbing for it with all the strength he had left, he clung to it tightly. Relieved and grateful that it was sturdy enough to keep him afloat, he realized that he was clinging to the top of a pine tree that was growing underwater.  Still gasping for breath and shivering from the waters that nearly drowned him, he caught sight of Aaron, who swam up alongside him, asking with great concern, “Trevor…are you alright man?”

“I…I’ll be ok…go on ahead. I…just…need to…rest.”  Trevor struggled to get out.

“No…I’m not going to leave you out here to drown!” Aaron assured him.

And he didn’t. After Trevor rested there long enough to catch his breath, Aaron swam alongside him until they both reached the sandy shores of the island.  Shannon’s hand was there waiting to help pull them both up and out of the water and onto dry land. Tales around the campfire that night were much, much quieter.  Minus Zeke, who really had no tale at all to tell; these young bachelors/weekend warriors, raised their glasses a little higher than all the other nights past; toasting the fact that they had no casualty (Trevor), to speak of, in that final battle on the lake; on that final day! 

 Fighting for his life in the middle of Grand Lake that day was not a battle Trevor ever expected to encounter…nor was it a battle he could’ve ever won on his own. Clinging to the underwater, pine tree in the lake that morning, his heart came to understand personally what his eyes had been unable to see before. That the chasm between he and the shoreline was far too wide, and the water was way too deep for him to tackle in his own failing strength.

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“God always provides just enough, just in time!”

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All of us live in a world of choice and consequence. All of us have, at some time in our life, suffered because of it. Trevor understood this better than anyone by the end of his bachelor’s camping trip.  But I believe there’s a much bigger picture being portrayed in Trevor’s story.  I see a man in a life and death situation; struggling in his own strength just to keep his head above water. A man who, no matter how hard he tried, couldn’t make the swim to the opposite shoreline where his marine/warrior friend stood waiting for him with great concern. In that moment when things seemed the most hopeless, a pine tree growing underwater shows up on the scene and provides a way of rescuing Trevor from drowning. Clinging to the top of that pine tree, he heard the voice of his friend, Aaron in the midst of his worst nightmare; reassuring him that he wouldn’t leave him and he’d stay by his side until they both reached the opposite shoreline. Ironically, Aaron was a fireman by trade; a living, breathing example of what it looks like to willingly risk all to save the life of another.  

If ever there was a snapshot of Heaven, this is it!  That pine tree was no accident in the lake that day. I believe God placed it there at just the right time to save a life…my son’s life. He did something similar in our world over two thousand years ago when a world-full of men and women were drowning in their own sins and needed a Savior to rescue them. God placed His Tree outside of Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha.  His Son, Jesus, died on that Tree (the Cross), for you and I.  It’s that Tree that we can still cling to; and be saved from drowning in our own sins…rescued from a sure, eternal death.  We cannot make it on our own.  The chasm between life and death is too deep and too wide for any of us to make it in our own strength. Don’t choose to just drown in your sins. Open your eyes and see the Tree God’s placed in those deep waters for you. Reach out and cling to that Tree and be rescued! Cry out with the psalmist, King David, in the midst of his own troubles,

” I cling to You; Your Right Hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:8 NIV)

Strain to hear the Voice of the One there by your side in your darkest hour, promising you,

 “When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.  When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.” (Isaiah 43:2a MSG)

And when you reach the opposite shore where He stands waiting for you, even now; take His Hand and find joy in the sounds of His Voice when He pulls you ashore and welcomes you into His Presence with these words.

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves!”  (Zephaniah 3:17a NIV)

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What is it that you are facing today that’s greater than you are? Do you feel yourself drowning in the circumstances surrounding you now? Are you still grasping at straws in life, in an effort to try and keep your own head above water…or are you ready to use what strength you have left to reach out and cling to the Tree God’s provided for you in the midst of all your troubled waters?

PRAYER: Dearest Heavenly Father, it’s not hard to see we live in a world of choice and consequence. Though this is true, You tell us in Your Word that even in the direst of circumstances, we are not to fear, for You’ve already made a way for us. Give us the strength to reach out and cling to the Tree You’ve already provided for us at just the right time in our troubled life. Even when we are sinking, remind us to open our eyes and see Your Presence before us. If we are to sink into anything in this life, may it be into the knowledge of “…how wide and long and high and deep” Your Love is for each and every one of us. IN JESUS NAME, AMEN