The Diving Board
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto
a people who flew to a distant country in an airplane. The plane was sabotaged by a suicidal terrorist. The pilot fought a valiant fight to save the lives of the souls aboard his plane. And he was successful, although he lost his life; he saved 20 souls alive by crash landing in a hostile desert wilderness deep in a foreign land. From the wreckage the survivors pulled out the dead and fatally wounded by the hundreds. Days passed with no rescue. And the sun burned down on them by day and the night froze them like ice. The survivors took shelter from the brutal elements in the airplane’s wreckage and scavenged what they could from the luggage bays.
Soon the bad airplane food, nuts, sodas, beer and wine ran out. And they were terribly afraid that they would never live long enough to see rescue. One of them had the luck to find a wilderness survival book in the luggage of a fallen passenger who had been a forest ranger by profession. They learned in the desert section of the book that they could harvest water from the simple desert cactus. They knew about Cactus well, for at one time or another, they had all suffered a needle from the desert cacti that surrounded them in abundance. The survival book was true and they were able to recover enough water, on a daily basis, to just barely keep them alive. The cacti also provided a cooling balm that would ease the sun's relentless attack. They also read about, began to capture, and eat the hostile lizards who were the only natives inhabiting the brutal alien landscape.
Time past, still no rescue, the cacti started becoming scarce and it became necessary to travel on foot to find more of the spinney water baring plants. The survivors would fan out in all directions and travel back using the trail they made to return. One day, one of them, a young man, came across an incredible oddity that defied nature. He found a 20-foot high diving board installed right in the middle of the desert!
He walked up, stood in front of it and looked up at it, as he stood dumfounded in its shadow. He was clearly standing on what must have been the deep end of a swimming pool that had been there some time in the past. He dug around and found that there was no concrete structure of a pool save a huge marble stone the diving board latter was bolted too. How weird was this! He gingerly climbed the 20-foot latter and slowly tested the integrity of the board itself. Soon he was jumping up and down on the board. A little later he found himself making huge luxurious leaps. He laughed out loud, slid down the latter's hot steel rails and started to wildly pile sand up to make a hill just under the board's 20-foot drop.
Looking at his sand hill, he figured he would survive the drop, and he scampered up the latter grinning madly. With happy childhood memories of the community pool at home, he ran down the board and with one great leap he sprung himself high into the air! The board bounced with him and made that happy clacking sound he had sworn he had forgotten. He hollered with joy, executed a most excellent flip and intended to hit the sand with his feet and roll out safely. That was the plan.....but.....
As he fell, his hill of sand approached at an alarming rate and passed thru and over him!
Suddenly he found himself under water! It was so cold he spasmodically shouted out, loud bubbles as his body twitched from the unexpected shock. Wild eyed he looked around and found he was in a deep pool with large tree roots jutting into the water at the pools sides. The water was incredibly clear and he watched in amazement as a catfish, the size of his arm, swam past him in panic. He looked up and saw, not sand, but shaded light and a forest canopy past that. The young man then realized he had run out of air and swam quickly to the surface.
He found that he was in fact swimming in the mouth of a large spring, which lazily flowed away and became a river, which ambled gracefully into the deep woods, that now surrounded him. Remembering his thirst, he madly began to drink! And he drank the fresh water until he thought he would explode. He got out of the water to investigate the new world he had discovered. As he stood and his last foot cleared the spring he found himself surrounded by blinding light and heat. Blinking he found he was back in the desert, standing drenched in water under the shadow of the diving board.
He laughed, flew up the latter and dove headlong shouting into the sand; which he
found was just an illusion! He was again immersed in pure spring water. And again, as soon as he stopped touching the spring, he was back. He lay there, giddy, making a large puddle of water in the sand. He lazily watched steam coming off his full stomach as the water evaporated into the hot noon sky. Then he remembered the others back at the wreck!
He ran all the way back to the airplane and shouted to the others exclaiming what he had found even before he was in range to be heard. He ran up to them ranting about the spring and exclaimed they would never need the lizard or cactus again! Concerned, they asked him if he had fallen and offered him some of their precious water. He busted out with insane laughter and exclaimed he had in fact dove not fallen and that he was already full and couldn't drink another drop.
Worried that he had lost his mind from hunger or had suffered some kind of heat stroke they made him sit down in the shade and earnestly consulted the survival book’s first aid section. He would not sit nor stop ranting about the spring! He continually jumped up and told everyone to fallow him on just a half hour walk He finally convinced them to fallow him at dusk; If only to shut him up. They took some water with them and stumbling thru the sand, they fallowed him until they came to the diving board. He walked under and around the diving board exclaiming what he had done when he first arrived. They stood there in amazement, blinking in disbelief as they stared at the diving board and listed to his tall tail.
The appointed leader of the survivors looked at the manual and said nothing like this was ever mentioned in it. The one, who had swum earlier that day, explained that he had seen in the survival guide where it had mentioned the existence of spontaneous desert springs.
He then showed them the statement in the book and found that he just quoted it perfectly.
They chuckled at him and said that there was a diving board standing in front of them not a fountain of water. He then told them, that all they had to, was jump off the diving board to get to the water that was surly there.
The leader scoffed and explained how unsafe and crazy the idea was and that they could break a bone. The young man exclaimed how stupid the leader was acting about this wonderfully simple, life saving, event. Insulted, and afraid the others might take him for a fool, the leader told one of the others to climb the latter and to jump off safely. One of the men stepped forward, climbed the latter, walked to the end of the diving board and then shakily let himself down until he was hanging by his hands. He let go with a yelp of fear; hit the sand hard and rolled away clutching his ankle in pain. The young man was horrified. After taking turns yelling at him, for wasting their supplies to take this insane trip, the remaining survivors turned and walked back to the wreck, supporting the man with the twisted ankle as they went.
The young man turned to find two of the others had stayed and were still looking up at the diving board. He asked them if they too thought he was crazy. One of them stated that the young man was indeed the most insane man he had ever met but that the diving board was such a curiosity standing there in a desert, that he did not know what to make of it.
The second man explained that he was once a diving athlete back in high school and that the novelty of jumping off a desert bound diving board was way too intriguing to pass up. He boldly announced that the guy who twisted his ankle was a wimpy, shallow, suck up and started climbing the latter, baring a huge grin. He took a single jump and bounced off the board laughing and suddenly disappeared thru the desert sending sand shooting high into the air.
The other man panicked and ran to the spot where his friend had disappeared. The young man laughed and shouted to the other that he should fear not for his friend, because he would soon be back. A few more minutes passed tensely. Then the second man climbed, dripping wet, out of the sand and laughed. He exclaimed how cold the water was and that he should have held his breath when he jumped. That was all the third man had to hear, dieing of thirst, he ran up the latter. As the dusk turned to night the third man boldly swan dove into the invisible spring with the sunset shinning at his back. The silhouette made the perfect image of faith that the young man would, much later, take smiling to his grave.
They spent the next few weeks visiting the other survivors, arguing and begging them to come to the spring. They even brought them water and a fish to prove what they said was true. But when they got to the plain wreck the water had turned itself into cactus juice and the fish had become lizards. Weeks passed, and after repeatedly being hatefully sent away, they gave up on the others. Out of sheer desperation only two more women survivors joined them at the invisible spring. The two women also jumped, swam, and rejoiced. The two women also returned and were violently rejected.
Weeks later, on the same day that the diving board had disappeared, the rescue helicopters finally arrived, and sadly, only the five at the invisible spring were saved alive.
How long will you squeeze the cactus, when all you have to do is joyfully jump?
Acts 19: 1-6...
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto
a people who flew to a distant country in an airplane. The plane was sabotaged by a suicidal terrorist. The pilot fought a valiant fight to save the lives of the souls aboard his plane. And he was successful, although he lost his life; he saved 20 souls alive by crash landing in a hostile desert wilderness deep in a foreign land. From the wreckage the survivors pulled out the dead and fatally wounded by the hundreds. Days passed with no rescue. And the sun burned down on them by day and the night froze them like ice. The survivors took shelter from the brutal elements in the airplane’s wreckage and scavenged what they could from the luggage bays.
Soon the bad airplane food, nuts, sodas, beer and wine ran out. And they were terribly afraid that they would never live long enough to see rescue. One of them had the luck to find a wilderness survival book in the luggage of a fallen passenger who had been a forest ranger by profession. They learned in the desert section of the book that they could harvest water from the simple desert cactus. They knew about Cactus well, for at one time or another, they had all suffered a needle from the desert cacti that surrounded them in abundance. The survival book was true and they were able to recover enough water, on a daily basis, to just barely keep them alive. The cacti also provided a cooling balm that would ease the sun's relentless attack. They also read about, began to capture, and eat the hostile lizards who were the only natives inhabiting the brutal alien landscape.
Time past, still no rescue, the cacti started becoming scarce and it became necessary to travel on foot to find more of the spinney water baring plants. The survivors would fan out in all directions and travel back using the trail they made to return. One day, one of them, a young man, came across an incredible oddity that defied nature. He found a 20-foot high diving board installed right in the middle of the desert!
He walked up, stood in front of it and looked up at it, as he stood dumfounded in its shadow. He was clearly standing on what must have been the deep end of a swimming pool that had been there some time in the past. He dug around and found that there was no concrete structure of a pool save a huge marble stone the diving board latter was bolted too. How weird was this! He gingerly climbed the 20-foot latter and slowly tested the integrity of the board itself. Soon he was jumping up and down on the board. A little later he found himself making huge luxurious leaps. He laughed out loud, slid down the latter's hot steel rails and started to wildly pile sand up to make a hill just under the board's 20-foot drop.
Looking at his sand hill, he figured he would survive the drop, and he scampered up the latter grinning madly. With happy childhood memories of the community pool at home, he ran down the board and with one great leap he sprung himself high into the air! The board bounced with him and made that happy clacking sound he had sworn he had forgotten. He hollered with joy, executed a most excellent flip and intended to hit the sand with his feet and roll out safely. That was the plan.....but.....
As he fell, his hill of sand approached at an alarming rate and passed thru and over him!
Suddenly he found himself under water! It was so cold he spasmodically shouted out, loud bubbles as his body twitched from the unexpected shock. Wild eyed he looked around and found he was in a deep pool with large tree roots jutting into the water at the pools sides. The water was incredibly clear and he watched in amazement as a catfish, the size of his arm, swam past him in panic. He looked up and saw, not sand, but shaded light and a forest canopy past that. The young man then realized he had run out of air and swam quickly to the surface.
He found that he was in fact swimming in the mouth of a large spring, which lazily flowed away and became a river, which ambled gracefully into the deep woods, that now surrounded him. Remembering his thirst, he madly began to drink! And he drank the fresh water until he thought he would explode. He got out of the water to investigate the new world he had discovered. As he stood and his last foot cleared the spring he found himself surrounded by blinding light and heat. Blinking he found he was back in the desert, standing drenched in water under the shadow of the diving board.
He laughed, flew up the latter and dove headlong shouting into the sand; which he
found was just an illusion! He was again immersed in pure spring water. And again, as soon as he stopped touching the spring, he was back. He lay there, giddy, making a large puddle of water in the sand. He lazily watched steam coming off his full stomach as the water evaporated into the hot noon sky. Then he remembered the others back at the wreck!
He ran all the way back to the airplane and shouted to the others exclaiming what he had found even before he was in range to be heard. He ran up to them ranting about the spring and exclaimed they would never need the lizard or cactus again! Concerned, they asked him if he had fallen and offered him some of their precious water. He busted out with insane laughter and exclaimed he had in fact dove not fallen and that he was already full and couldn't drink another drop.
Worried that he had lost his mind from hunger or had suffered some kind of heat stroke they made him sit down in the shade and earnestly consulted the survival book’s first aid section. He would not sit nor stop ranting about the spring! He continually jumped up and told everyone to fallow him on just a half hour walk He finally convinced them to fallow him at dusk; If only to shut him up. They took some water with them and stumbling thru the sand, they fallowed him until they came to the diving board. He walked under and around the diving board exclaiming what he had done when he first arrived. They stood there in amazement, blinking in disbelief as they stared at the diving board and listed to his tall tail.
The appointed leader of the survivors looked at the manual and said nothing like this was ever mentioned in it. The one, who had swum earlier that day, explained that he had seen in the survival guide where it had mentioned the existence of spontaneous desert springs.
He then showed them the statement in the book and found that he just quoted it perfectly.
They chuckled at him and said that there was a diving board standing in front of them not a fountain of water. He then told them, that all they had to, was jump off the diving board to get to the water that was surly there.
The leader scoffed and explained how unsafe and crazy the idea was and that they could break a bone. The young man exclaimed how stupid the leader was acting about this wonderfully simple, life saving, event. Insulted, and afraid the others might take him for a fool, the leader told one of the others to climb the latter and to jump off safely. One of the men stepped forward, climbed the latter, walked to the end of the diving board and then shakily let himself down until he was hanging by his hands. He let go with a yelp of fear; hit the sand hard and rolled away clutching his ankle in pain. The young man was horrified. After taking turns yelling at him, for wasting their supplies to take this insane trip, the remaining survivors turned and walked back to the wreck, supporting the man with the twisted ankle as they went.
The young man turned to find two of the others had stayed and were still looking up at the diving board. He asked them if they too thought he was crazy. One of them stated that the young man was indeed the most insane man he had ever met but that the diving board was such a curiosity standing there in a desert, that he did not know what to make of it.
The second man explained that he was once a diving athlete back in high school and that the novelty of jumping off a desert bound diving board was way too intriguing to pass up. He boldly announced that the guy who twisted his ankle was a wimpy, shallow, suck up and started climbing the latter, baring a huge grin. He took a single jump and bounced off the board laughing and suddenly disappeared thru the desert sending sand shooting high into the air.
The other man panicked and ran to the spot where his friend had disappeared. The young man laughed and shouted to the other that he should fear not for his friend, because he would soon be back. A few more minutes passed tensely. Then the second man climbed, dripping wet, out of the sand and laughed. He exclaimed how cold the water was and that he should have held his breath when he jumped. That was all the third man had to hear, dieing of thirst, he ran up the latter. As the dusk turned to night the third man boldly swan dove into the invisible spring with the sunset shinning at his back. The silhouette made the perfect image of faith that the young man would, much later, take smiling to his grave.
They spent the next few weeks visiting the other survivors, arguing and begging them to come to the spring. They even brought them water and a fish to prove what they said was true. But when they got to the plain wreck the water had turned itself into cactus juice and the fish had become lizards. Weeks passed, and after repeatedly being hatefully sent away, they gave up on the others. Out of sheer desperation only two more women survivors joined them at the invisible spring. The two women also jumped, swam, and rejoiced. The two women also returned and were violently rejected.
Weeks later, on the same day that the diving board had disappeared, the rescue helicopters finally arrived, and sadly, only the five at the invisible spring were saved alive.
How long will you squeeze the cactus, when all you have to do is joyfully jump?
Acts 19: 1-6...
