Summer is coming and I was reflecting on the days spent in my parents' above ground pool. When we had kids, they loved going over there to swim. My Mom went in the pool once in a while, but usually sat on the deck watching. When all the adults were working, Mom would have the kids over for games, crafts, TV and pool and many snacks too. Lunch was often pizza rolls or frozen pizza and chips. I'm trying to remember what else, I'm sure my kids remember. She always had snacks on hand, and I guess I have followed in her footsteps.
There was one summer day that ended up with a story that has been retold by different eyewitness accounts over and over again. I wasn't there, so this is second hand and I'm sure if my kids read this, I may have to amend some things as to how they remember it. Tiffany and Ben were probably about 12 and 9, I think. That was the first time ever, that my Mom left the deck to put the pizza rolls in the oven. The kitchen wasn't far from the deck. What could happen in a few minutes?
Soon there was screaming. The way I understand it, "someone", as was common with many of us, kicked the pool wall to get a push to the other side in their float. In a flash, the whole wall collapsed, and all the water came gushing out taking Ben down the small berry bush covered embankment into the back yard. Tiffany somehow remained in the pool but screaming and crying for fear of her brother as he was washed away.
Mom came running out to see the disaster. Ben came up from the embankment with the deflated tube around his waist and with scratch marks from the bushes all over his body.
This incident has been one of those family stories the kids retell over and over. Tiffany says she feared for her brother's life as she saw him disappear over the embankment. Now Ben has a different (teasing) spin on it. I think his comes from the fact that Tiffany was laughing in relief that he was ok and of course, seeing him walking up the hill with the popped tube around his waist was also humorous. Ben even made a little video with Barbie dolls reenacting 'The Day My Sister Tried to Kill Me" (she maintains he kicked the wall). As for my mother, she would always say, "The ONE TIME I left them alone." She felt remorse and guilt, but what could she have done? I can imagine how surreal it must have been to come out and see the collapsed pool and only one grandchild in it.
This scary incident became a funny memory. Each one there had a different tale to tell about the incident--the two eyewitness accounts and the one innocent bystander who arrived at the scene moments later.
Life is like that; we can all share the same experience and have different feelings about it or even different viewpoints of what really happened. Some people survive avalanches of water and being scratched by thorns, some will watch in fear and helplessness as others suffer and those who don't even witness the event can be personally touched by the circumstances, sometimes feeling remorse. We are shaped and grow through our life experiences. It is great when incidents like this one, can turn into a happy tale to tell after the fact. Not all experiences always do. Likewise, as Christians, we may have different testimonies of our lives. and different experiences that shape us and our identity. Different ways to share our life's stories and still serve the same God.
I leave you with God's word: "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work."
I Corinthians 12:4-6
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