Advent 2024 – Day 13

Have you toweled off after our time in the river yesterday? Ready for another watery episode in our “Advent Adventure”?

All campers faced a tough canoe trip downstream through 22 sets of rapids. Each dugout canoe that we used weighed from 500 to 1000 pounds and held half a dozen passengers plus camping gear. Our camp director warned us, “If you lose your balance, fall out on the upstream side of the canoe. Otherwise, the current will push the canoe on top of you and you may be crushed by its weight.”

All was going well for us until we came to the very last set of rapids. The camper at the front of my canoe was directing our craft left toward deeper water, but the current was swifter than he anticipated. It pushed our vehicle sideways onto a rock shelf. Like hitting a wall, we stopped instantly, jarring Jerry and knocking him out of the canoe. With his weight gone, the canoe floated up off the rocky ledge and moved farther downstream. But it quickly hit another portion of the rock shelf, and suddenly I found myself flying through the air, but unlike Jerry, I fell out downstream. The canoe lifted a second time and raced towards me. Unbelievably, my 5’ wooden paddle was still in my hand. Acting as a wedge, the paddle interrupted the canoe charging through the raging water; it took the full force of its weight. Instead of being crushed up to my hip, all I had was a sore tailbone! As I wrote in my letter home that night, “Don’t worry about my safety here…God is taking very good care of me!”

Do you remember when Mary and Joseph lost track of Jesus in Jerusalem? Luke 2:42f tells us he was only 12 years old, still a child in their eyes. They searched everywhere looking for him. Three days went by, their anxiety mounting with each passing hour. At last, they found him with the teachers in the Temple. He looked at them. “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know I was safe in my Father’s house?”

What is stressing you this holiday season? Are you afraid of things beyond your control? Or can you say, “Don’t worry about my safety here…God is taking very good care of me!”