The waters of Boca Ciega Bay are certainly enticing. Clean and sparkling in the sunshine, their blue depths just touched by white foam on the rippling wavelets-who would think of the “dangers of the deep”? Who would take the time to think that the little bay feeds into the Gulf of Mexico, and that in turn into the Atlantic Ocean? The biggest creatures of the deep water would probably not come up into the bay-whales would be unlikely visitors!-but many species of sharks forage in shallow waters.
When Thadeus and Anna Kubinski came out onto their dock for their daily swim, they saw no hint of danger. There was a school of small fish near and under the dock darting about and leaping into the air, but that was not a rare occurrence. Always cautious, Mrs. Kubinski eased gently down the steps into the water. Her husband elected to dive from the dock. As he dived, his wife heard a great splash and suddenly-a shark!-a bull shark seized her husband in his great jaws!
A bull shark may be eight or nine feet long and may weigh 400 pounds. His jaws may be a foot or more wide, ringed with razor-sharp teeth. With a wound fifteen inches long and ten inches wide, Thadeus Kubinski was dead within a very few minutes.
The grieving Kubinski family would like to see warnings posted along the beaches, telling people of the danger in the water. But how effective can the warnings be? With the tragedy still fresh in their minds, it was still pleasure as usual on the beaches.
One swimmer said, “It’s not like the sharks are coming back every day.”
Another was “comfortable” and thought, “It’s not likely to happen again.” (There were thirty-four shark attacks in Florida alone last year.)
And the Chamber of Commerce stated, “We don’t believe there is a life safety issue at all!”
One man said that he would continue his daily swim across Boca Ciega Bay, but he would “tow a red balloon” as a marker and a precaution.
A little red balloon, bobbing along over the waves! Pretty? Yes. Effective? No!
But is there a “red balloon” somewhere in the back of your mind? Are you thinking that all is well with your soul because “I go to church every Sunday,” “I give to every charity in town,” or even, “I’m simply a good person”?
The Lord Jesus did not say, “Go to church more often,” or “Donate more,” or even, “Be a better person.” His firm statement was, “Ye must be born again.” There is no escaping that. Doing “good things” every day of your life will not erase the bad things that you have done and said and thought, because you were born with a nature that is just plain contrary to good, contrary to God. One of the writers of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, wrote, “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God....There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
That means that we are all sinners: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” All? Every one of us. That is why the Lord Jesus died on the cross to bear the punishment for all the guilty sinners who would accept His great offer. The Bible says, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” To be “born again” is to become the child of God by faith in Jesus Christ.