Waves of Grace: An Easter Reflection
BY LAUREN GRUBAUGH
When I was about 7 years old, my father taught me to swim in the ocean. I’d had the wind knocked out of me by an enormous wave that rolled me topsy-turvy in the sand and left me tearfully disoriented. My father, a former lifeguard and swim coach, determined that this was the moment to teach me to courageously approach the ocean with the respect it deserves.
As we waded in, my father explained that the way to avoid getting pummeled by the swells is to dive into them. With my hand securely enveloped by his, we waited for the next wave to draw near. “Ready?” he asked. I took a deep, shaky breath, nodded, and with eyes screwed tightly shut, made the plunge. An eternity seemed to pass as the waters swirled around us. Then, suddenly, my father’s strong arms were drawing me up and out onto the other side, and I was squinting in the brightness of the sun dancing on the water, no worse for the wear. I felt relief, and even exhilaration. And then came my father’s voice, “Ready to do it again?”
The world we live in teaches us to face the waves of life head-on with sheer grit and dogged determination. We are taught to depend on ourselves, to prioritize our security, and to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Inevitably, these methods fail us. Knocked down by life, we find ourselves sputtering on the sands of disappointment.
The message of Easter is that God generously offers us another way to engage our turbulent world. Having been knocked about by jarring encounters with our own brokenness and the wounds of our world, we emerge from Lent to find Christ guiding us into the waters of baptism.
Submerged in the swirling chaos of the waters of this world, we are baptized into Christ’s death. Drawn up out of the waters and into the light, we are baptized into Christ’s resurrection life.
Christ’s hand reaches out to us, inviting us to abandon our tense posture of fear and self-protection. We can trust Christ to lead us through a world which has not ceased to be turbulent, but is, suddenly and all at once, full of wonder and possibility. With each wave we pass through, we might come to hear the voice of God gently asking us, “ready to do it again?”
The Rev. Lauren Grubaugh serves as the Associate Rector for Formation and Discipleship at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Centennial, Colorado. She serves as the Spanish/English translator for TENS.