Parents, It's Right In Front of You!* Words from COVID 19 quarantine

 Parents, It's right in front of you. On our honeymoon, my new bride and I stepped off the airplane in Maui to paradise and an almost charismatic, “snorkeling boat tour to Molokini,” hawking barker who was gifted at getting the attention of unsuspecting jet lagged mainlanders. It sounded exciting to go to the mostly submerged cone of a volcano and snorkel in the crystal clear waters. My new “wife for life” graciously agreed to take one of our precious days in Hawaii to get up and get on this boat. The nearly charming (probably a former snake oil) professional, sweetened the deal saying a buffet would be served too! How could this get any better I wondered. So, the next day we got up anticipating our romantic snorkeling half day trip. We imagined blue skies and calm seas and a beautiful boat with pretty people just like the picture on the front of the brochure had promised. We arrived at the dock, with gray skies, rough seas, an old rusting large boat and nice, but somewhat unglamorous fellow shipmates, who had also been drawn in by the airport snorkel hawker. We even saw an old fraternity brother of mine… (happy honeymoon baby!) He was kind and gracious and was friendly, but gave us our space. As we began our short “3 hour tour… the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed,” Undeterred I was still eager to “snorkel the famous Molokini crater.” My sweet young bride, however, began to get seasick. The waves, the nauseating smell of half-burned diesel, a half-cleaned head (read - “boat bathroom”), others tossing their cookies, and the promised barbeque with grease dripping off it...and she was done… the ship steward recommended she go below, so the tossing of the ship was lessened, but the smells were even worse below. It was miserable, there was no escaping the nausea and there was no turning back until the tour was over. She graciously told me she would try getting in the water. The snorkeling was horrible, the seas had churned up the water and visibility was terrible, eventually the captain recommended that the snorkelers board the bobbing cork of a boat and we return to Maui… a cheer went up from all. When we got to land, we were too sick to demand a refund, and the best they would do was give us a discount on our next trip with them!!! What? So, we went back to the condo and rested with our pressure point wristbands and motion sickness bags. The next few days we relaxed and biked, toured, enjoyed the pool, beach and rode mopeds around on the beautiful island. After overcoming our initial snorkeling experience we decided to try snorkeling the area just in front of our condo. Wow! It was so beautiful, all kinds of beautiful coral and fish and shellfish, everything that had been promised on the other tour. We even saw a sea snake which, I reluctantly later told my wife, was very poisonous. The area was so beautiful and so much fun I didn’t want to stop exploring this underwater paradise. The whole time this gorgeous Black Rock was right there not too far from where we stayed, no boat necessary.

Sometimes the snorkel hawkers can make us question the quality of our experience and they get us to chase unrealistic deceptive images of what seldom comes to fruition. God has plans for us that far exceed our expectations. Long ago, God’s people had been through some rough times and it was about to get worse. Their own leaders and prophets had charismatically and convincingly led them astray and promised “peace, peace” and safety from the incoming waves of disaster, but their real peace and safety depended on them staying close to the God of their salvation, the God of their peace, the God of promise. They would be deported far from home to Babylon, times would be rough, but they had listened to snorkel hawkers and gone away from God, so God’s discipline was necessary to draw them back to Him. God promised that He had great plans for them…the prophet Jeremiah says, “For I know the plans I have for you," this is the LORD's declaration," plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, "this is the LORD's declaration," and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you,” this is the LORD's declaration. "I will restore you to the place from which I deported you." Jeremiah 29:11-14 (CSB) During these challenging times, we can’t listen to deceptive snorkel hawkers, we gotta stay close to God, who loves us and has great plans for us. He is close, right in front of us, in fact.

Hang in there people. God is glad to be with us. I’m praying for us all.