I’ve been talking about God’s love, knowing God, walking a road few dare to travel, being intimate with God, and going deeper.  This past week has been around the metaphor of the ocean.  God’s deep and wide limitless love.  I want to learn to swim in this ocean of love.

It’s Mother’s Day weekend.  As I think about God and wanting to learn to swim, I’m reminded of my grandmother, Mommy Bo.  I can recall some bright sunny days in the shallow end of her pool when I was very small.  I recall her wearing her swimming cap with me in her arms teaching me how to swim.  I guess she taught most of her grandchildren how to swim in her own backyard.

I remember learning how to kick and move my arms but the one thing I didn’t like to do was to keep my head down.  I couldn’t stand to put my face in the water.  Maybe it was the water in my eyes or up my nose that I didn’t like.  I think more than that I worried about how I was going to breathe.  I trusted her as I was in her arms but I didn’t trust swimming with my face in the water.  She had faith I could do it when I didn’t have the faith.  She loved me with a love I never understood at the time.  But as I grew and became an adult I came to a place where I understood her love.  She was a great cheerleader for me… and all of her family!

Today, close to 40 years later I am asking God to teach me to swim…  To teach me to swim in the ocean of His love…  Trusting Him with the me He created.  Much like the trust I had in my grandmother’s arms.  At a certain point I had to swim on my own… to let go and swim in her pool.  I guess I’m sort of the same with God.  For so long He has been holding on to me teaching me to swim – now it’s time to believe I can swim in His ocean of love.  It’s His pool… He’s still there watching with great joy.  I guess it’s time for me to believe I can do it.

Thanks Brad for the encouragement.  I’m trying to understand.

When it gets right down to it – it’s not about learning how to swim but rather learning how to drown in the ocean of His love.  Thanks for the insight Glenn.   Total surrender would be to drown in the ocean of his love.