It Wasn’t About the Cave

July 15, 2018

I never played soccer, well as a team sport that is. This sport that has become central to our lives – 2 of my children on travel teams translates to practices, games, tournaments, and a significant amount of time spent driving, cheering, and driving some more. I recall in high school before a field hockey game I made my way towards to the competing team’s school in search of a friend to say hello. I passed a soccer game and there was a knowing as I watched the girls run, and kick, and dance with the ball – if I played that… that would be my great love of a sport…

And now my children play and I love soccer because of them. It is woven into our lives. They don’t play soccer. We experience soccer, together. Soccer as it seems, is about together.

I know a soccer mom who brings a ball on every trip to beaches, and hotels, and even the airport. She says if her sons pull out a ball and start casually passing, suddenly there is a group with them, passing as well – all different languages – speaking the one true universal language – soccer.

And the world watched….

The boys and their coach in the cave, in the darkness, in the cold. Waiting.

We watched because they were our sons, our team, our coach. Our children.

We watched because in a divisive world we saw togetherness, and hope, and how thousand gathered from all over the world to save the 13. They worked around the clock while Buddhist monks prayed and the families hoped and endured the unendurable. We mourned when the Navy Seal gave the ultimate sacrifice for there is no greater love than this. We watched because we were in that cave with them.

We watched because when it was laid out before you it was impossible – children, some who didn’t swim, navigating a perilous course dangerous for even the most experienced of cave divers. And the floods, the impending monsoon rains. And the world came together.

We watched because as each boy emerged, we knew we were watching the great and glorious weaving of science and the divine into the thread of humanity. We watched because the impossible become possible. Miraculous.

We watched because the characters were preparing for this role their entire lives… the Wild Boar player from an illiterate and impoverished family who became their translator, who could speak 5 languages taught by a Baptist minister, the expert diver and doctor who was in Thailand with his family on vacation, and the coach, in many ways a boy himself – a former Buddhist monk trained in deep meditation and conservation of energy… coaching his team through the unthinkable.

We watched a great and giving God part the seas and waited in the heightened drama to showcase His works. And when the last rescue worker emerged, He removed His hand, the pumps gave, the rescue workers abandoned their supplies. His work was done.

It was never about the cave. It was about humanity and love of one another. It was the example of a lifetime, a story for the ages.

When you are in the cave of your life, in the dark and cold, waiting. Like these heroic boys – find the light within and go there. Calmly peacefully go inwards, and let that light be a giving light to others. Until another light emerges from the darkness, illuminating all around you, the voice speaks, and you answer in reply.