The Rescue Diver Who Went Under

In 2018, Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan volunteered for the rescue mission at Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand. Twelve boys and their soccer coach were trapped deep inside flooded caverns, with no way out on their own. The only path to freedom ran directly through the thing that threatened to kill them — the water itself. Saman died during the operation, giving his life so that others could pass safely through those dark, terrifying passages to reach the open air.

Every one of those boys had to go through the water. There was no way around it. But they went through it carried by rescuers, guided by ropes and oxygen lines laid down at the cost of another man's life. They entered the flood as trapped children. They emerged on the other side as survivors, blinking in the sunlight, embraced by weeping parents.

Peter tells us that Christ, the Righteous One, suffered once for sins to bring us to God. Like Noah's family passing through the floodwaters in the ark, we are carried through judgment rather than spared from it. Baptism, Peter says, is our passage through the water — not a washing of dirt from the body, but an appeal to the Almighty for a clear conscience, made possible because Jesus went under the waters of death first and came out the other side alive. He descended so we could surface. He went through the darkness so we could reach the light.