That tooth popped right out.

Mama, it flaps when I drink water.

Will you pull it out?

I took the small trusting hand in mine and lead him to the operating room, aka the bathroom.

Tissue wrapped firmly around this dangling tooth; and I yanked.  The chipped memory of a toddler falling face first onto wood flooring popped out without resistance.

Beaming, my boy squealed,

The tooth fairy is coming!

I grinned as I looked into that sweet face, gaping smile more holes than teeth.

Go show Daddy.

I couldn’t help but look at the chipped pearl and remember the day his face hit the floor and nicked personality right into that tooth.  It was daddy and uncle’s watch, of course.  Not that anyone has ever chipped a tooth on my watch, or gashed a knee, or knotted a baseball-sized lump onto the head.

Today is his birthday.

I remember now… a time that was on my watch.  That day, five and a half years ago.  A day we almost lost this beautiful, toothless face to the sea.

A storm brewed just off the coast.  It wasn’t enough to keep us from digging feet into warm sand.  We had just arrived.  The ocean beckoned without letting up.  We had to go down there.

The view, mesmerizing and soothing as the ocean whispered its strength.  Deceiving – those waves that lull and slide onto the shore only to quickly disappear into the murk and mist.

My older ones, only seven, six, and four-years-old, jumped the teasing ocean as it licked the shore.  My warrior held fast to hands and stood as an armed guard between them and the hungry sea.

My parents joined us for this vacation.  Dad had hurried to the sand as quickly as we had, while Mom stayed behind to prepare a meal that only a grandmother could craft.

I remember meeting a woman.  She stood as a watch tower over her own little ones, while we laughed that our children had the same name.  I rubbed my expectant belly and breathed deep the salt air.

It came out of nowhere.

This beast of a wave roared, reminding us of the grains of sand that we really are.

She looked at me and yelled,

It’s coming in!

I saw my toddling 18-month-old wander toward the greedy water.  My dad, eyes wide, moved his 81-year-old legs faster than I had ever seen.  The wave, it was just  too much.  That surging force of endless ocean powered to the shore, grumbling and snarling at everything in its path.

It came out of nowhere.  Nowhere.

All I could do was run.  As dad and I enveloped my baby like armies strategically flanking its prey, my dad snatched up his small, unsuspecting body.

It wasn’t enough.  Dad held him tightly, but the surge of the wave and the power of the retreat was just too much.  The tide tore and pulled and ripped my baby from his arms.  I screamed for my husband to help my father as he was pulled into the ocean.

I still don’t know how it could have ended this way… but, I am eternally grateful.

I reached them before the water could pull me down.  My little boy’s body was completely submerged.  The only glimpse of him was a sparkle of his blue and white swim shirt.  The UV protection could do nothing to keep him safe.  I saw his shirt and his face, eyes open wide, peering up at me from underneath a film of murky sea water.  The wave taunted and pulled as I lifted my  baby to open air.  Pulling him toward my chest, I felt as though I would squeeze him right into my soul.

But, he didn’t even cry.  He didn’t even suck for air.  He breathed a steady calm breath as if he had been floating in peace, just waiting for mama to save him.

It was my dad who saved him.  But really, it was our merciful Father who saved him that day.

The almosts, the could-have-beens, the what-ifs… they haunt sometimes.

This rogue wave of parenthood brings us face-to-face with time after time of…

I saved your life.

And, He does.  Here and the hereafter.

Time and again He saves our lives.

And I am grateful for His mercy… most especially on the days that that rogue waves threaten to take us down.

 

Matthew 8:25-27

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”  Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”