The Realization of a Lifelong Dream

This post is written as a sort of surprise for my family. Mom, Dad, Livie, I hope you enjoy it!

My dad is a scuba instructor, and as long as I can remember I have read dive magazines while eating breakfast. I’ve seen cuddle fish, lion fish, nudibranchs, and scorpion fish, but only in pictures; until this week.

For my birthday, the Grilo’s gave me a gift certificate that covered 50% of the cost of an open-water dive course. So, this week, Miguel and I worked really hard and fast at school so I could take the course in the afternoons.  Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was in the water from 2:30pm until 6:00pm, the first day in the pool, and the last two days in the ocean.  On Sunday I wrote the four quizzes and final exam, and, praise the Lord, passed with 100% in all of them.

Even though the sensation of breathing underwater was a little bit unnerving at first, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. My first dive in the ocean was breath-taking, and after all four training dives, I’ve seen about 15 lion fish, several scorpion fish, jelly fish as long as my body, huge bat fish, angel fish, parrot fish, butterfly fish, large schools of snappers, clown fish, cuddle fish, anemones, giant clams, soft corals, hard corals, fans, sponges, cute little nudibranchs, flounders, crabs, live cowrie shells bigger than my fist, many kinds of starfish, and many things that I cannot name. The diving here is some of the best in the world, and it is just down the road from where I am staying. I am so blessed!  

As your senses delight in the attractive loveliness of the earth, think of the world that is to come, that shall never know the blight of sin and death; where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Let your imagination picture the home of the saved, and remember that it will be more glorious than your brightest imagination can portray. In the varied gifts of God in nature we see but the faintest gleaming of his glory. It is written, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." [1 Corinthians 2:9.]     The poet and the naturalist have many things to say about nature, but it is the Christian who enjoys the beauty of the earth with the highest appreciation, because he recognizes his Father's handiwork, and perceives his love in flower and shrub and tree. No one can fully appreciate the significance of hill and vale, river and sea, who does not look upon them as an expression of God's love to man.  {CE 55.3}