Wednesday, August 20. 2014 “At sea,” it reads on the brochure, and that’s where we are as I write this. Oh, I’ve been ’on boat’ a couple of times before. That’s where you board and move along as slowly as possible because you have so few miles to cover, and it’s supposed to feel like real sailing. In 1957 three of us experienced ‘at sea’ time when we hitchhiked on a German passenger freight ship. Seven days from Montreal to Southampton. We were in staff quarters—bunk beds and hammocks below the water line—and it was great adventure. This is better. But ‘at sea’ is different from river cruising which can be magnificent, and we love it. The difference? Our riverboat captain laughed out loud during the required life jacket safety drill and said, “And should we by some unforeseen chance, sink, well then, we could just walk to shore.” The captain of our present ship NCL ship, The Getaway, shared with us yesterday evening that we were passing over water that was 17,000 feet deep—hardly conducive to walking on water unless you were Jesus! The ‘at sea’ experience has deep spiritual meaning. (Even deeper than 17,000 feet ). “Look as far as the eye can see,” a passenger was saying to his wife, and beyond that and beyond that too is a hint of the size of the Atlantic Ocean.” The sense of your trusting the ship to keep you afloat and safe is not so far from grace. What you didn’t create and what you can’t control keeps you out of the deep and wide. Our mini-chapel (the tiny ‘veranda’—ought to be called a ‘kindaveranda’) has become more meaningful each morning as we continue to share the Upper Room and that daily Bible reading mentioned here before. Two little people, a father and son, on two little chairs on a tiny porch looking out over a vast ocean, reading and praying together. Warm breezes come from here and there and make the sense of the Spirit present a blessed introduction to each day. Our communication-spoiled world lifts one distraction to our attention. There’s ‘no service’ for cell phones out here. In fact I never saw the ‘x’ below the signal bars on the phone until now. We are used to talking or texting with our family almost daily, and can’t do it in our usual ways. (Strange because those ‘usual ways’ are so recent). Even so, if you’re getting this, it’s because we sending little pieces of whatever to a satellite, and it gets translated into words and sentences reaching out across the entire earth to those who have become part of our on line family, as well as to our family at home. So, from the waters of the Atlantic, and a satellite somewhere in the heavens, we ‘at sea’ salute and send love to you in all the places you are. Always love, always, Keith
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 12:00:41 +0000
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