Drowning in a Pool - Sink or Swim
by Sue
When I was about 6 years old and on one of my first family holidays in the early sixties, my mum, dad and two brothers and I went on a holiday with my aunt, uncle and cousins, who had come down from London. They would come the night before we set off on holiday and stay with us – my mum and her sisters were all very close.
We were all very excited to get on the coach which would take us to our Butlins Holiday Camp at Clacton on Sea, Essex (holiday camps were all the rage in those days) and I was so excited that after eating a packed lunch on the coach, I was sick as a dog.
In those days holiday camps were all-inclusive which included a chalet, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When we arrived, we got off the coach and my dad went and got the key to our chalet. The evenings were filled with bingo, dancing, and a singer and the camp’s own full-time band. Me and my cousins would dance all evening until the Holiday Camp’s staff, known as ‘Red Coats’ would say “Time for bed children” and our parents would gather us up and walk us back to the chalet. This was usually about 7.30 pm, and it allowed our parents the freedom to have a few hours of fun together, with more entertainment, and to dance the night away with a few drinks from the bar.
The ‘Red Coats’ would walk around the camp checking for any children or babies that might be crying and would then call out over the Tannoy “There is a child crying in Chalet number so and so,” one of the parents would have to go to their chalet and check that all was OK.
Well, the week was going great up until we went to the large indoor swimming pool. I seemed alright to start with, sticking close to the steps that went down into the pool. But I do not remember too much but somehow, I managed to find myself right out in the middle of the pool. I do remember screaming and one of the lifeguards must have heard me and jumped in and rescued me. He lifted me up and carried me up the steps and by now one worried mum and dad had also come running to where I was as he cried out “Whose child is this?” It was a horrible experience and I am sure I was near the point of drowning in that pool. The lifeguard handed me over to my parents.
It completely put me off swimming for many years. Swimming classes on a Friday with the Junior school was not good for me and I often remembered nearly drowning in that pool at the Butlins Holiday Camp, so I stayed very close to the steps I never did learn to swim. I think that scary moment all those years ago had put me off and had a big effect in my life. I would much rather watch from the seating area, if my husband goes swimming, to be in a safe place looking on.
The Bible speaks about drowning often throughout the scriptures. And when I was 30 years old, I was again saved from drowning, but this time not just from water but from the pool of my unrepented sin.
We are all in a pool of unrepented sin and we will drown in it if we do not get saved and get out of it.
But the good news is that God is in the business of saving those that are in danger of drowning. He will dive in and rescue all that cry out to Him for help. When sin threatens to drag us down into a lost eternity – the Great Lifeguard Jesus, will rescue us.
I was saved once by physical intervention but more importantly by supernatural intervention – the first time saved from the possibility of physical death the second time save from certain eternal death.
Be saved today.