A Flood Survivor

One day while hanging sheet rock in New Orleans, a dreadlocked rasta-type poked his head in the window and started talking to us. He lived in a FEMA trailer two feet away. He was 52 years old, but he also said he was two years old because he felt like he'd been given a new life when he survived the flood two years ago. His name was Christopher, he was chiseled and beautiful, with thick dreadlocks mushrooming off his head. He wore a flight suit. He said that when the flood came, some people were swept down the street, but he managed to just get around the corner of a house and therefore not to be caught by the current. "But I was wearing the wrong boots," he explained, for they were too heavy to swim in and his feet were planted to the ground. The water rose above his head, and he thought he was a goner, until he remembered a Sponge Bob Square Pants episode about a deep-sea diver and realized he could walk under water. He walked to his house. "If anyone had seen it, they'd have just seen a nose cruise by," he said. His arms were outstretched and his head was straight back as he demonstrated how he made this journey. "It was beautiful," he smiled. When he was underwater he became tragically aware of all of his life's regrets, and that he hadn't lived whole-heatedly for God. "One of the things that hurt me most was that I'd never married my old lady," he recounted sadly. He prayed that he would be given another chance, and his boot suddenly found the firm ledge of the sidewalk in front of his house. He pulled himself up on his porch. "The Lord saved me, and changed my whole outlook that day," Christopher told us. "That's why I say I'm two years old."