Enter Through The Narrow Gate

When I was a child, I remember my mom telling me, "Don't touch the red glowing area on top of the stove." I asked "Why?" She answered, "Because I said so."

But her answer didn't satisfy my curiosity. Why couldn't I touch the top of the stove? I had to know why. So, one day I touched the glowing red top of the stove. Ouch! That hurt! I experienced why.

When I was about six years old, my parents bought me a fishing pole and reel and took me fishing in the pond about two hundred feet behind our home. I loved fishing!

The next day I asked my mother if I could go fishing. She said, "No! Don't ever go to the pond alone. There must be an adult with you whenever you go to the pond. I asked why? Mom responded, you might slip and fall into the water and drown without an adult being with you. Do you understand? I told her I took swimming lessons, and I know how to swim to safety. Why can't I go fishing?" She quickly answered, "Because I said so."

I heard, "Because I said so" so many times that I thought it was part of the answer to all my questions.

A few days later, my mother went shopping and left my older sister to look after me. That afternoon, when I awoke from my nap, I thought, "I want to go fishing." So, I began to reason in my mind, my mother knew how much I enjoyed fishing. After all it was right behind my house and what harm could come to me fishing? I convinced myself that no harm would come to me, and my mom wouldn't mind too much if I went fishing.

So that afternoon I chose to disobey my mother's instructions. I snuck out the back door so my older sister wouldn't see me. I got my fishing pole off the back porch and went down to the pond behind our home.

There was a wooden wharf about 8 feet square floating out about ten feet off shore. It was anchored so it couldn't float away. The only way to get out onto the wharf was to walk on a thick wooden plank about fourteen feet long, two inches thick, and a foot wide. As I walked on the plank, it slowly bounced up and down with each of my steps until I made it to the wharf.

The water was about ten feet deep where the wharf was. As I stepped closer to the edge of the wharf to put my hook in the water, suddenly my feet slipped, and I immediately landed in the deep water and went under. When I came up to the surface, I was close to the wooden wharf. I tried to reach the top of the wharf, but my arm was too short to reach it.

I sank down under the water again, taking water into my mouth instead of air. I splashed around making my way back to the surface and I reached with all my strength to reach the wharf. But my fingers and arm were too short, so I began to sink down under the water. The last thing I remember seeing, was my fingers stretching to reach the slippery wooden dock. I missed my mark, I couldn't save myself. With my eyes still opened, I began to sink down underwater, with my arms reac...