A Very Sad Story:
Took this pic Monday June 10, with the intention of posting light, passing comment, “So glad God never posts this sign in our lives (no lifeguard on duty). The Life guard is always on duty.” Didn’t know the depth that message would take on two days later, when near this spot, a young man lost his life in a heartbreaking but “God present” way.
Wednesday July 09, I stopped by Carlsbad beach intending a few minutes’ detour to catch the sunset. But it was too much – too breathtaking to rush. So I stopped, parked, stayed. Battery at zero, used “magnifier” app to try and capture RARE sunset; a hundred perfect rays stretched halfway across the ocean, draining into one perfect bowl of gold all the sailboats had settled into. Couldn’t drive away. Had to join the “sunset crew” that gathers daily. Everyone was talking: “I’ve lived here forever…never seen it like that…” “It’s like a harp…like sun-strings you could play…” “It’s like Heaven just opened up…” None of us knew…it just had.
Down below, two brothers had just gotten separated by an unexpected wave only a few strides into the water. Split second. One brother came up, the other was missing. That was the last they’d stand together.
Within minutes, search and rescue men and women from Carlsbad, Del Mar, Oceanside arrived and in formation. Inspired by the passion and diligence of first responders. Surfers; Lifeguards, Police, Fire, EMT; Coast Guard Chopper, Boat and Jetskis; Divers doing Daisy Chain; Command Center. Every effort, every person’s utmost.
It was 2 hours before I discovered I was parked next to “the victim’s vehicle” as worded by OPD, which led to staying 2 more hours, able at least to pray for, and at one time with, the family. David Velasco was found the next morning, 2 miles north. My prayer is that he was “found” within seconds by a God of love and life everlasting, and that his family is found daily still, by God’s extra touch of inexplicable peace.
David’s brother is Fernando, and his loving girlfriend Eva. These strangers I pray for still, remembering a night when they finally let go of the guardrail where they’d been standing and staring oceanward for hours. Eva raised her hands as if to say, “where did you go?” I pray heartache like this is met by “an ever-present God in times of great trouble” (Psalm 46:1), that they have family and friends to see them through, that they find some sense of “the peace that surpasses understanding.” (Philippians 4:7)
I wasn’t sure I was going to post this part, but this all happened a day after a recorded and broadly discussed dream about discovering someone had drowned and waiting for them to come to the surface. The only benefit I can imagine to a dream that doesn’t save a life but only foretells of loss, is to share as testimony what seems to be the vast and resonant voice of God stating, “I know what tomorrow holds…I know it today. No matter what it looks like to you, I’m there, I’m in control. I have the details and I am working them together for good. Whatever ‘valley of shadow’ comes, by my eternal math, in the ebb and flow of an eternal tide, I’ve got you in My hands.”
A very sad story to me…
A very great Hope for all…
“Therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” — Hebrews 12:1,2
