Letter
Two
A trial by fire, in water.
It was late in the summer of 1972, around August or
September — for the blackberries were ripe. We had picked a bucket full and backed
the small boat away from the undergrowth at the river’s edge — for it protruded
from the river bank. Upstream about twenty feet or so, an old dead tree stuck
up from the water and looked like a good place to anchor — to do a little
fishing.
The boat moved against the
slow-moving current — low in the water. It was there that the voice came,
“Satan is going to try, to kill Joseph.” I rejected this as a figment of my
imagination. Again, within a very short time the voice came again, “Satan is
going to try, to kill Joseph.” Again, I rejected the warning, thinking it was
only my imagination. For he was safe, and sat in the seat directly behind me.
We had just made contact with the
old tree, when Jonathan our oldest — himself only a little more than four years
— called to us, “Joseph’s not in the boat, Joseph’s not in the boat!” My wife,
Yoshiko was tying the rope to the old tree, and at Jonathan’s cry, I turned to
look in the back where the boys were. I stood to see what was going on, only to
see that Joseph wasn’t in the boat. I could not believe what I saw — that he
wasn’t in the boat. Our baby — only two years and eight months old — was
missing! I sweep the water back and forth, each time farther down stream. I saw
something — just a blur — about twenty
feet or so; without hesitation, I dove toward that blur. While I was swimming
under water, I began to feel panic. I thought, did I miss him or was it
something else? If I surface to look, I’ll lose my momentum. Then, I felt
something soft. I was afraid to pull on it, so I encircled it with my hands.
His little body was in the sweater, and I drew him to me. We surfaced and I
could see we were drifting down stream. I cut an angle, between upstream and
the shore and began to swim in that direction. Holding him in my left arm and
swimming with the other, was tiring, and worst of all, I didn’t know if he had
water in his lungs or not. I swam as far as I could, and my strength gave out —
I could swim no farther. I gathered him in my arms as we sank, and floated down
in the water.
While there, a voice came and began
to accuse me. For not many days before, I had a contention with one, who I had
thought to be a brother in Christ. The voice said, “If you will recant and
repent before God, then at least you will not die a hypocrite.” Further it
said, “If you do not let the child go, you both will drown.” I began to pray
and said, “Lord God you know my heart and how I love you — I don’t know any but
you. You have given me the Spirit of Truth to teach me — who else can I turn to, but you? I cannot
recant the truth. Give me the life of
me and our son, for I cannot
live without him, but I will not trade the truth for our life.” With this, I
regained strength and surfaced. I swam with him to the river’s edge, but there was
no place to put my feet, because of the overgrowth. I reached for a limb but it
crumbled like wet paper, as soon as I took hold of it. I managed to place my
feet on some vines, grabbed some with my right hand, it held us up. Then I said
to Joseph, “Daddy’s got you baby,” and he answered with, “You gotch me.” Then
for the first time, I knew his lungs were clear.
During this whole ordeal, Yoshiko
had managed to get the boat untied, and was coming along aside of us — on the down stream side. She had run the
boat into the thicket and held it there. I lifted our son to her with as much
strength as I had, and she pulled him into the boat. I stayed in the water for
a while, resting my arms on the boat railing, as my head had a very painful
throbbing. My strength was spent and I could not pull myself into the boat.
After some rest, with my dear wife’s help I managed to get into the boat. It
was the first time that we could examine Joseph. He seemed all right, and there
was no sign that he had swallowed any water.
After resting and regaining our
composure, we started back home, where we arrived safely. We examined ourselves
and found that we were alright and in sound health — giving thanks to our
heavenly father for it.
My
wife and I have thought about the ordeal and hindsight. I thought how they
should have had life jackets on. How that one of us could have been in the back
with them, or that we did not even have to come this way. This is when it was
opened to us that it was not Joseph’s or my life that was at stake, but rather the test that came to
pass in the water: To stand on God’s promises, for they are truth. We know that
God has tried his people from age to age, and from generation to generation.
For as a Abraham
loved Isaac, more so, he loved the God of truth, and was obedient to God’s
command. I shudder to think where we would be now, had I traded our lives for
the truth. It is easy to use words, to say what one would do in such times as
that, but to be there — b
is fire in water: that is the water of the Word by the Holy Spirit.
a Genesis 22:1-18. b Zechariah 13:7-9, Matthew
3:11-12, Peter 1:7.
Amen,