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When I was seventeen years old, and I had just graduated from high school, my parents wanted to do something special for me to celebrate my graduation, and my mom had the idea of a day at the lake with a couple friends. Here is what I wrote about the occasion in my journal:
June 25, 2004
Yesterday was my graduation party at the lake. It was just Misty, Stephanie, Kelly, me, and our dads (just fathers and daughters). It was really fun. First of all it was great to see Misty. That was the second time I’ve seen her since she came back from Venezuela. At first I was going to invite more friends to come, but then I decided it would be more special with just Steph and Misty. We’re really close friends…
There were some really neat answers to prayer about the whole thing that made it a totally awesome day. For several months my mom had been praying about what we should do to make my graduation special and she eventually thought of the father daughter idea - which turned out to be really great. Then several days before we went, I was having my devotional and I prayed that God would make the weather really nice that day – or at least for most of the day so that we could have a good time. I have been reading “Prayer: Asking and Receiving” by John R. Rice, which is really good. It has really challenged me about praying in faith and believing that God delights to grant my requests. So I prayed for good weather and for some reason I really had the confidence that God was going to grant my request.
Now a couple of Sundays ago in my dad’s Sunday school class he was teaching about how if we ask God for something and He says yes, we shouldn’t pray for it again. He gave an analogy that I thought was good. If I was to ask my mom to do something for me tomorrow, and she said yes, I should take her word for it. If I went back to her in an hour and asked again she would probably be a little annoyed because she already said yes. If I then went back a third time, she might get frustrated with me. If God gives me the faith to pray believing that He will grant what I ask, I should not ask again, but think of it as a closed matter. If God says He is going to do something, He will. I need not ask twice.
So anyway, God gave me faith to believe that He would grant my request, so I decided not to pray about it again, even though the trip was several days off. Man that was hard. I came so close to asking God again several times. I’m so used to praying things over and over again. I didn’t ask again, however, and yesterday when we went, the weather was perfect. It was sunny for most of the day and just cloudy towards the end. It was just slightly warm and the water was wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. God is so good!
That was an awesome answer to prayer, but God did an even greater miracle while we were there. That’s the way I have come to see answers to prayer like that. Some people say that God doesn’t choose to do miracles now like He did in Bible times, but after yesterday I have no doubt that God has not changed at all. We simply don’t have the faith. I think if people would expect things like what happened in Bible times, it would happen and maybe even to a greater extent. In one of the gospels (I don’t remember where now) Jesus said to His disciples that with the Holy Spirit, they would do even greater things in His name, than He did himself. I think that was at the same place where He said, “You will say to this mountain move, and it will be done.” (or something like that).
OK, now I’ll tell you what happened. Later in the afternoon we were riding in a rented pontoon boat and we found an island that had a rope tied to a branch over the water so we stopped and went and played on it for a little while. It was a lot of fun. The dads took turns staying on the boat while the rest of us went and played on the rope swing.
Well, Stephanie’s dad brought a tow rope contraption (I don’t know what it was called) that we used when we went knee boarding and we were going to need in order to water ski later. While most of us were swinging, the dads were trying to untangle the rope from the propeller and in the process the connection apparatus to the rope got dropped and it sunk to the bottom of the lake. I think it was supposed to float, but it didn’t. The lake was pretty murky there by the island, and we guessed probably about 20 feet deep where the apparatus was dropped. Stephanie’s dad yelled over to us on the island asking if anyone had goggles. I had brought a pair, so I swam to the boat to get them.
By that time Misty was over by the boat too. I gave her my goggles and she was going to try to swim to the bottom to find the connector. Poor Misty went down time after time. I went down with her a couple times, not to help (because I didn’t have goggles and had to keep my eyes shut) but just to hold her hand and give her moral support while she went down. I couldn’t hold my breath for very long at all. I hadn’t been swimming in a long time and never have been good at holding my breath for very long. It was a little scary going down there. Our ears got really sore. Misty looked like she was in a lot of pain afterwards. We all prayed that God would help us to find it, but it seemed hopeless. The water was so dirty and so deep. Even with the goggles on, I could only see a short distance in front of my face. It seemed like I would swim downward for a while but I never could see a thing but dirty water in front of me. I never was even able to see the bottom. Maybe it was because I was scared. I don’t know. I think Misty swam farther down than I did.
We all kind of gave up. We all got back on the boat and I went over to the side of the boat and looked over at the water. I asked God to show me where it was so that I could dive in and get it. I kept scanning the water intently, hoping God would give me some kind of laser vision so that I could see through the water. Then I noticed a small light reflecting on the water from the sky a short way from the boat. It was pretty cloudy then and Steph and Kelly said they saw a little hole in the clouds where the light was coming from. The light reflecting on the lake was very small. I could have covered it with my. Hand. It was not in the spot there the rope thing had been lost either, but I told whoever was standing next to me that we needed to try diving right in that spot. It was like God had bored a hole in the clouds and pointed to a spot in the lake. I asked Misty if she wanted to try one last time, and she said no. I think her ears were hurting her from diving down so much. So I grabbed the goggles and went to a little perch in the back of the boat.
I stood there for a minute or two until I located the light again. When it reappeared, I dove off of the boat. I can’t think of a way to describe in words just how awesome and spectacular it was. I went down a ways and then there it was in front of me! I grabbed it and swam back to the surface holding it high above my head in. Swimming back to the boat I thanked my Father for I had had the privilege of taking part in a miracle.
I have had some awesome answers to prayer before, but I think that was by far the most awesome. I was almost shaking for a while after that, it was such an awesome feeling. I feel so unworthy for God to do that through my prayers. God came with us on that trip and man did He make it awesome! I don’t think I could have had a better graduation party short of spending it in heaven! Last night I couldn’t go to sleep for the longest time just thinking about it! In my mind I can still see that little red contraption floating a little above the bottom of the lake in front of me. I think that is a mind picture I will never forget as long as I live!
This occurrence at the lake was, I believe, a test of my faith, which only served to strengthen it even more. I felt so privileged to have been given the opportunity to take part in such an awesome experience, and yet it was also a lesson to me, for I realized that had I not persisted in prayer and presumed to ask God for the impossible, I would not have gotten to see Him work in such a miraculous way. Perhaps, I thought, people would see Him work like this more often if we would but ask for it.
Do you believe in
miracles?
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