"Oceans for Emotions"
Guest column contest winner
Victoria Advocate, July 2003

Those words were painted on rough-finished ceiling beams of the bunkhouse at a Christian retreat center I visited in 1978. Numerous other scriptures were also painted randomly among the beams, but those particular words brought back a very distinct memory.

In 1969 the USS Forrestal transited the Atlantic on its way to a 6-month assignment with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Three days out of Norfolk and over 1,000 miles from the nearest land, the ship’s captain decided to launch some aircraft for training flights. This despite concerns that, due to our distance from land, if a plane experienced difficulty or, worse, if the carrier’s arresting gear suffered a malfunction, there would be no alternative for the flight crew(s) but to eject, lose the aircraft, and take their chances with a parachute into the empty sea!

As a newly trained F-4 Phantom pilot on his first carrier cruise, I was one of those selected for the first, pre-dawn launch. Launch conditions were what we called a “pinkie,” near total darkness but with a dim horizon slightly visible towards the east. With some apprehension, I was fired off the bow catapult, leaving safety and security behind.

A few towering cumulous clouds were scattered around the sky, their very tops beginning to blush in the rays of the sun which had still not reached the horizon as we climbed out through 5,000 feet. The higher we climbed the brighter the sky became, until the sun burst over the edge of the sea in full glory! The combination of sheer beauty and the vastness of God’s creation nearly overwhelmed me then, and I could see the same view in my mind as I stared at that bunkhouse ceiling.

The words on that beam seemed very personal. I had indeed “taken the wings of the dawn.” I had been literally “in the remotest part of the sea.” And I knew beyond a doubt that even there, God’s right hand had held me and led me.

There were no malfunctions, no equipment failures, and all aircraft were safely recovered as the huge ship continued steaming towards the east. But just as that mental picture will never fade, neither will the reality of God’s love for us, his omnipresence, and his saving and guiding right hand. Whether in the remotest part of the sea, a crowded city, or a country lane, he is truly there, leading and loving us.

Lord, reveal to each one in a personal way your constant presence and infinite love.

John Earle