An Explanation of the Name

I'm a writer, a little bit of a bookworm, and a poet. Naturally, I love a good metaphor. There's a particular metaphor that's been following me around since I was a teenager.

Now floating up and down

“I spin, colliding into sound
Like whales beneath me diving down
I'm sinking to the bottom of my
Everything that freaks me out
The lighthouse beam has just run out
I'm cold as cold as cold can be”
(“Into the Ocean” by Blue October)

In high school I would play this song over and over in my room. I knew the pain and angst of feeling completely surrounded by something so out of control. That's what water can do, it can drown you.

When I was 20, God called out to me. He pulled me into Him. A few years later, there was that metaphor again.

“You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep”

But this Christian song offered a little more hope.

“And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine”
(“Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong United”)

It turns out, though, this metaphor is a lot older than any old song.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
Isaiah 43:2

God knows we are drowning. But we are not in the water alone. God sends us out into the water. He called Noah to the deepest waters, literally.

In Genesis chapter 7 Noah was made righteous in God's eyes by the grace of God. Then God loaded him up into an ark with a bunch of smelly animals and set him afloat.

There's one important bit in this story that's easy to miss.

And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:16

Noah and his family followed God's command and then God sealed the Ark up. This is the security that God offers when you listen to His call.

So, here I am, sealed up in the ark of the righteousness God gave me. The waves crash all around. Often I am frightened and feel the anxiety of being surrounded by an ocean that is totally out of my control. But the more I am tossed around, the deeper the waters seem, the more I can see that God continues to hold me in his safety.

Hebrews 11:7 says:
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

My prayer is for faith. Not faith of my own but a faith that calms raging seas and walks on water; a faith that calls only on God the Father in times of trouble; a faith that only comes from Jesus Christ himself.

This is the prayer of a mom in deep waters.