raging river

It’s been a while since I got to blog. I have been wrapped up in writing all our material for VBS plus making the decorations! I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Well, I want to tell you about a tubing trip my 10 year old son and I went on last weekend at Townsend.
If you have ever been tubing before you know that just after a good rain the river is up and faster. We have been experiencing a lot of rain lately so when we arrived at River Rage they were saying that if the kids are under 10 they could not ride the upper section of the river. No problem. We are covered there. What was real strange about this trip is my son and I decided to wear a life jacket. We have been here before and NEVER even thought about putting on one of these things. Looking back, it was the best choice we made that day!
So we head off to the river and they drop us off. We put in and proceed down the river. There was some good spots where the rapids were fast. We found the spot where the rope swing was and we played there for a while. The first trip down the river was ok but kind of boring. We heard people talking about how strong and fast the rapids were up at the Y, which is where you turn off to go to Cades Cove from Townsend. Being the adventurous men we are, we decided to hike up there and check it out. It did not disappoint! There were some good, strong, fast rapids and it was a blast! Someone had lost a beach ball so we chased after it trying to save it. We hustled to the bank so we could go again. This is where the nightmare began.
We put in to start this adventure again. There were several people on the banks but very few in the water. There was an older gentleman getting on a tube with his grandson in his lap. The current took my son through the rapids first. He was screaming and having a blast. The older gentleman had gotten in front of me somehow so they were next. It happened right in front of my very eyes! The older gentlemen’s tube hit the very first rapid and flipped! The kid in his lap looked to be around 6 or 7 years old. Neither one of them was wearing a life jacket! I was trying to reach them but they were going too fast. All I could do is watch in horror as the older man was swept under by the rapids. I was trying to yell at my son to help the kid but he couldn’t hear me because the water was so loud. I don’t know how, but the kid made it through with only a few scratches. The older gentleman wasn’t so lucky.
By the time I reached him he was holding his head and dog paddling. I reached out, grabbed him, and pulled him on to my tube. I asked him if he was ok and he said that his head bounced off rock after rock and that everything was spinning. When we reached a point to where people were on the banks I got them to come and help me. I explained to them what had happened and some lady ran and got a park ranger. Lucky for that guy it just happened to be a special weekend at Cades Cove and the ranger was there watching traffic. So the ranger radioed for an ambulance. I didn’t realize it when we were in the water, but the older gentleman had a gash in his head that was bleeding pretty bad. So the ambulance arrived and we took off down the river again. We were very nervous about the rest of the trip down stream. And then it happened…my son flipped backwards at the bottom of a rapid! It was over after that. He said, “After seeing what happened to that guy and then flipping on that rapid, I’m never coming back!”
It was an adventurous day to say the least. I took it as an opportunity to explain to him how important it is to serve God every day and how important it is to have Christ in your life because we never know when our life will end. It could happen in a blink of an eye. One minute your having a great time, laughing, and by the time you take your next breath…it’s gone. I’ll leave with a couple of verses to think about but there are others to consider:
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Mark 13:33 And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert! Be on your toes! Randy