What you see is what you get (also in the sea)

As longterm missionaries to the islands, we tried to make our family feel comfortable with the most prominent element here, - water. 

Our kids learned sailing and diving from a young age and know a lot about all those crazy sea creatures and also about the yummy fish!!!

Praise God for Mahi Mahi !

All of them did their diving license when they became 10 years old and our youngest son, really loves it and would probably live under water if that would be an option! 

Every time we go to Dominican Republic we try to have a dive together. Friends of ours have a Appartment right next to a dive shop and diving here is relatively cheap. 

So here we were. Under water, diving along one of the healthiest reefs here. I love diving. It’s normally very relaxing . You just float weightless and gaze upon Gods beautiful creation… Colours forms, strange beings….. Just keep breathing in and out…. Glorious! After half an hour dive, I suddenly realise, my youngest was going up, while we all tried to go down… I pulled Him down, our dive guide pulled too…. And I got a ,little stressed. Which is not the thing to do under water. His tank was emptying, relatively fast, because there ere bubbles coming out of every hole of his ding equipment, so his buoyancy had shifted and it pulled him up, where he should not go as there were motorboats rushing over our heads and we also still needed to do a security stop before we came up again.  Praise God our dive guide stayed cool and He just pulled the young man down and pointed at interesting fish and creatures and just kept it fun. So we all went for 20 more minutes or so and he just chilled, enjoyed being pulled and getting some extra creatures pointed out. He didn’t stress out because his air was going really low, or because he was in danger of drifting upwards towards the motorboats, or because of the worried eyes of his father, because, he just didn’t look there. The dive guide kept his attention on all the beautiful things all around him. 

You could say, “Ignorance is still bliss” but you can also go a little deeper. We all are the captain of our attention and we are supposed to be in control of it. That means,  to a certain measure, we can decide where we direct it and what affects us and how. “Self control” is one of the gifts of Gods spirit. God has not given us a spirit of fear, to slavery again, but a spirit of courage, strength and a sound mind. 

There is a kingdom of beauty, glory and power all around us. His provision and blessings and prepared works are everywhere, but so often we don’t see it because we have our eyes on the wrong price. God invites us, to come closer to Him and see what He sees, to receive open eyes of our hearts, so we can see the greatness of our calling and our inheritance in the saints, so we can realise once again, that Today is the day of healing and salvation and today His grace is enough! So maybe you still think that what you see is what you get, but possibly what you get is what you see and you can decide about it!  Lord Jesus! Open the eyes of our hearts again, so we can see as you see! Thank you, amen!