Immersed

Immersed:  this is a word that keeps tumbling around in my heart and mind. 

Webster's defines "immerse" to mean, "to plunge into or as if into a liquid; to baptize by dipping under water; to involve deeply, engross, as in thought." 

What is we "immersed" ourselves into God's love?  According to the definition, it is not a toe-tipping sample of an experience.  It is rather a "baptism" of fluid: to deeply ponder and let it swell over you. 

When I visited Hawaii almost two years ago, David and I went to a beach with gigantic waves.  To get out into the water, one had to wade through the waves.  Almost instantly, they were up under your arms and still so clear that you could see your feet.  Before I knew it, a wave crashed into me and splashed over my head and into my nose.  Hours later, salt water was stilling pouring from my sinuses.  I do not mean to gross you out.  I use this story to help paint the picture of immersion.  The water was not simply on me.  It made its way into the available openings of my face. 

The other day, I allowed my head to immerse above my ears in water.  I had to turn my head from side to side to allow the air pockets in my ears to bubble out and water to replace them.  It was an uncomfortable sensation, because it was not my daily routine.  Suddenly, I realized that I could hear things that I could not otherwise hear.  The water in the pipes sounded much like the sound in an empty conch shell, a roaring of sorts. 

I began to think about this in relation to God's love and being immersed in it.  What if I allowed myself to let His love penetrate my ears and surround my body?  I would hear things through His love, rather than have a barrier of the familiar to separate me from Him. 

Immersion requires trust.  When I was a little girl, I wore a yellow life jacket because I could not swim.  I had taken it off and forgotten it was missing.  Not until after I had jumped off the diving board, did I realize that my "life vest" was missing.  Obviously, I survived this experience. 

So many of us use a "life vest" around ourselves.  We have our 'this and that' to protect us from immersion.  We fear drowning in the something we have not conquered. 

"...Drink, yes, drink abundantly of love, O precious one [for now I know you are mine, irrevocably mine!.." (Song of Solomon 5:1)  What if we drank of His love - immersed ourselves in it, knowing we belong to Him?