The Dive That Brought Them Home

In June 2018, twelve boys and their soccer coach crawled into Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. Monsoon rains flooded the passages behind them, trapping them in total darkness for over two weeks. They were alive but utterly unreachable — sealed off by miles of murky, narrow tunnels no ordinary person could navigate.

Then the divers came. Elite rescuers from around the world plunged into those black, flooded corridors — passages so tight that tanks scraped against rock, where one wrong turn meant death. Former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan gave his life in those waters, running out of air on a supply mission. The righteous entered the place of death so the trapped could be brought out alive.

And here is the part that haunts me: each boy had to pass through that same water to reach safety. Sedated, fitted with a mask, guided by a diver's hands through the flooded dark — they went under and came out the other side breathing free air.

Peter tells us Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. He descended into the depths we could never survive alone. And baptism, Peter says, now saves you — not as a washing of dirt, but as an appeal to the Almighty for a clear conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We go under the water held by nail-scarred hands. We come up on the other side, finally home.