Summer Dreaming Contest Winner: How to Get Back in the Water

Congratulations Malcolm Mackinnon on your winning entry in our Summer Dreaming Writing Contest.

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“Will there be sharks?”

My daughter’s question interrupted me as I gazed at the bay. I’d been watching the small waves in the distance make their final curve to reveal an aquamarine hue you’d imagine only existed in enhanced photographs.

Sharks? To be honest, I didn’t know. The ocean had no boundaries, no border controls, no requirement for passports. Any sea creature was within its rights to go anywhere. But that’s not really the thing you say to a nine-year-old.

“No, there won’t be any sharks,” I said in my most authoritative voice.

We continued our way through the sand to the clear water, our snorkels and masks already in place. The beach was quiet, with no more than 20 people scattered along its horseshoe-shaped curve. The sun shone out of a cloudless sky, illuminating the bright green fields bordered by cypress trees which descended to the water’s edge. It was everything a summer afternoon should be: long; tropical; beautiful; warm; and peaceful.

And definitely no sharks.

As we swam around the reef, I noticed how proficient my daughter had become. Only last summer, on the island of Mau’i, she’d been so scared of snorkeling, I had to support her while she floated on the surface and peered tentatively under the water.

Now look at her! Diving way deeper than I could, swooping all around me, constantly smiling and waving. It was like swimming with a mermaid.

She loved the huge variety of fish, the contours of the reef, the delicate fingers of coral. Nothing seemed to faze her as I watched her diving for shells. She even found the urchins and the sea cucumbers fascinating.

As we surfaced, we found ourselves near two older ladies.

“Did you see any manta rays?” one of them asked me.

“No. We were hoping to see a turtle.”

“There are plenty of those around. Seeing manta rays is pretty unusual, though. We saw a couple earlier.”

“Are manta rays safe?” I asked.

“Oh yes, they’re safe. It’s the stingrays you need to watch out for.”

For a moment, I felt relieved. Then I wondered if stingrays also swam around here. It occurred to me I probably wouldn’t be able to tell a manta ray from a stingray anyway. Maybe now was a good time to get out of the water?

We returned to our chairs and towels, and I began reading while my daughter played with some other children. After twenty minutes, something caught my eye. I looked up to see a large, dark shape in the shallows. I grabbed my video camera, which I have learned through painful experience to always keep by my side.

What could it be? It was too long to be a turtle. A manta ray? Did they swim this close to shore? I flicked open the viewing panel of my camera and started filming, while walking toward the shore.

Just yards from the edge of the water, in a depth of about two feet, the creature turned on its side. As it straightened itself, a fin emerged from the surface. This was no turtle, no big fish, and certainly no manta ray.

This was a six-foot shark.

“It’s a shark!” I blurted out to no one in particular.

My daughter heard me, and instantly become my cheerleader. “Go, go, go,” she shouted at me.

What did she want me to do? Get in the water with it? Go, go, go into the water yourself, I felt like saying to her.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “It can’t breathe out of water, so it won’t come up on the beach.”

Yeah, thanks for that. Always good to get safety advice from your nine-year-old. To be fair, in moments like this, you do start to wonder if beach-walking amphibian sharks actually do exist.

Before I could speculate further, the shark turned around and cruised out to sea. I walked up and down the beach to inform the few people who were there what I’d witnessed. I met with a variety of reactions, mostly grateful for the warning. For a moment, I felt like the police chief in Jaws, urging people out of the water.

Well, here’s the thing. What should be the life-response to such an incident? Because, the next day, we were at another beach. I thought about the situation, and reckoned it was a very rare occasion to see a shark so close. Therefore, I resolved to not let fear defeat me, and get back into the water.

As I gathered together my snorkel, mask, and underwater camera, I glanced across to my daughter.

“I guess you’re not coming with me,” I quipped.

“Will there be sharks in there?”

I prepared to launch into my automatic “No, of course not” answer, but then I caught myself. I could no longer declare there wouldn’t be sharks.

“Probably not,” I said, as reassuringly as I could. I didn’t even convince myself.

“Why wouldn’t I come with you?” she asked.

I stared at her. “You do remember what happened yesterday? I won’t be offended if you don’t want to come.”

“I do want to come.”

“Are you sure? Why aren’t you afraid?”

“Because you will be with me.”

Wow! As a parent, could you ever receive a stronger affirmation of your child’s trust? I felt a lump in my throat, deeply touched by the confidence she had in me.

So, we entered the water once more. I don’t remember much except constantly looking to the left and right, and behind me, to see if any sharks were around. Not my daughter, though. As far as she was concerned, she could revel in the ocean and completely throw herself on the fact I would protect her from any danger.

But what would have happened if we had seen a shark? What if a really big one had come along? Would she have said to me, “Go, go, go,” and expected me to punch it on the nose? I’m pretty sure I would have gone, gone, gone, but in the opposite direction.

You see, as touching as it is to receive the trust endorsement of your child, there has to be a limit on what they can expect you to do. It’s tough for any child to eventually discover their parent is not, after all, a superhero.

Yes, we want to be everything our children need us to be but, at some stage, that declaration of supreme faith must be transferred from us to the One who really is worthy of it.

John the Baptist once said he must decrease in the estimation of his followers in order that Jesus might increase. It didn’t mean he no longer wanted to be their friend, or their mentor, or an authority figure in their lives. Rather, he needed them to refocus their true adherence of loyalty to the Son of God.

God encourages us to adopt the same attitude. As Joshua prepared to lead God’s people into the Promised Land, God told him three times to be strong and very courageous. Why would God have needed to repeat it three times? Because Joshua felt weak and fearful.

And what were the grounds upon which Joshua should go forth with strength and courage? God didn’t tell him to trust in the size of his army, or the zeal of the people. Instead, Joshua entered the land with the divine promise that the Lord would be with him.

As parents, we urge our children to trust us. However, they still are often reluctant to do so, preferring to retain the control of the situation themselves. How wonderful, then, to hear their faith in us without even having to persuade them.

Similarly, it’s one thing for the Lord to encourage us to trust in His presence with us. It’s another thing to reach the stage where we instinctively put our confidence in Him. I’m sure God would have every one of us proclaim, as the Psalmist did, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4 NIV).

Jesus told His disciples, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:2 NIV). Among the many aspects of childlike behavior Jesus wanted to promote, the trusting faith of a child would have been foremost in His thinking.

On that summer afternoon, I learned what childlike faith looks like. It’s the unwavering belief we can enter a potentially dangerous environment because our protective parent is with us.

And I learned it’s the same faith God wants us to have in Him.