Make sure you’re between the two of them. There’s the umbrella, and there’s the towel. But that was the point.īefore he let us run into the surf, he would make us huddle up and listen to his instructions: “The undertow is really strong today, so when you’re out there in the water, I need you to look up every now and again and check your markers. There was no mistaking Dad’s handiwork, even from way out in the water. He would set up an umbrella in the sand - always one so vivid we couldn’t miss it.Īfter Dad positioned the umbrella, he would walk down the beach a short distance and essentially make a flag out of an equally brilliantly colored beach towel and a pole, standing it up in the sand. Then, once we were out on the beach, he had a routine for keeping us safe.
Knowing that we could be swept out to sea, my dad coached us every year about the dangers of the undercurrent and what to do if we felt ourselves being pulled under or away from the shore. It was a getaway we all looked forward to … but going for a summer holiday also meant swimming against a strong undertow. Every year when I was growing up, my dad and mum would take us kids on an annual trip to Umina Beach, just an hour’s drive north of Sydney, where we lived.
My dad drilled in to me the dangers of it. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” Hebrews 2:1 (ESV)Īs a kid, I knew about drifting.
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