Spiritual Snorkeling

by Johanna Johnson

Matthew 16.25: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about salt. This started especially on a recent trip I took to the Florida Keys (my first!), on which my boyfriend and I went snorkeling. I was really looking forward to diving down deep and seeing this beautiful and mysterious world right up close. He instructed me how to do this: take a breath, and then keep some of the air for when I come back up, so I could get a good strong blow through the snorkel to get the water out. Gearing myself up, I took my breath and broke the surface. It was as beautiful as I’d hoped… for about 8 seconds, when I suddenly realized I had gone quite a few feet below and now feared I wouldn’t get back. In my surprise, I blew out all my air and scurried frantically to the surface, now with no more air to blow through the snorkel. I spit out my snorkel, coughing and gagging at the extremely salty taste now in my mouth. I floated there for a few moments, catching my breath, remembering the fear of thinking I would not make it back to the life-sustaining oxygen. But how glorious that first breath was!

It occurred to me that this isn’t unlike baptism. Some traditions, particularly in the historic Church, baptize in such a way that a person is held beneath the water until they really feel the fear of death, then are lifted up once again into life. This is reminiscent of Jesus’ own death and resurrection – in entering the watery tomb of baptism, then being lifted out once again, we are baptized into Jesus’ death and life. We are given the new life for which Jesus died.

Also in some baptismal rites, salt is placed on the lips or tongue of the one being baptized – salt in fact has significant spiritual implications. Salt, for example, preserves, purifies, cleanses, provides nourishment, and heals – all functions we find also in our baptism. Once one has come up from the watery tomb of baptism, one has been cleansed of sin and purified, preserved by the cross of Christ, nourished in faith, and healed of the work of the devil. And to feel that brief albeit very real fear of death under the water, then to take that first life-giving breath of air, and to taste the residual saltiness on my lips, preserving me in the safety I find only in Christ’s own resurrection… Quite a stunning transformation – not unlike baptism – that happened upon my terrifying but redemptive emergence from the salty waters off the Florida Keys.