“My heart is so full.” Sitting in the Miami airport, I was speaking with one of the young adults I had been diving with the past week. He was trying to explain how he was feeling after experiencing the beautiful coral reefs of Bonaire, an island in the southern Caribbean known for its diving. It is hard to find a more apt description of the awe and wonder that time in creation can inspire. The reefs of Bonaire and its reputation for beauty are not just there because of God’s miraculous creativity being on display – but also because people have chosen to value that and protect it.
The island of Bonaire is in the Dutch Caribbean, and they have decided that given the small number of resources on the island itself, they needed a “blue economy.” That is, the flourishing of their waters would mean a flourishing of their people. It would be interesting to know how much of the desire for protection stemmed from awe and wonder and a desire to protect beauty for its own sake or whether that was seen as a side effect. Either way, they designated the entire coastline as a marine protect area subject to strict rules on its use. They have also put certain areas out of bounds even for SCUBA diving and tourists – ecotourism has its own impacts on coral reefs, noted in our paper studying this in Kenya.
We stayed at Buddy Dive Bonaire – a very comfortable place totally dedicated to diving. I walk out of my room in the morning and the sea is already in site, perhaps a 30 second walk away. Breakfast is taken in a building almost overhanging the ocean. Just beneath the dining room is the diving area where our gear is in lockers drying from the day before. You walk about 20 feet to get your tank, gear up, and then walk about 10 feet to the stairs that lead down into the water. Take as many tanks as you want, climb down that ladder as many times as you want, just watch your no-decompression limits that show how much excess nitrogen is circulating in your blood, and dive, dive, dive.
I am working with a group of young adults from a church in the Boston area to engage people’s minds and hearts with God’s beauty in the ocean. The team of eight was certified last year and we dove briefly in the FL Keys last November though hampered by rough seas. The first meal overlooking the ocean the night before was a catching up amongst friends and anticipation of the day to come. Our gear tested and ready to dive, we swum along a sandy bottom in about 20 feet of water out to the reef edge which drops down to about 100 feet fairly dramatically. The team went out over the edge and down to about 60 feet where we swam at that depth along the reef which was teeming with life.
Upon surfacing the team couldn’t stop talking as we floated near the stairs. Nobody wanted to get out but described their experience of the drop-off and the abundant ocean life. Sure, we were spending money there as the island community hoped, but we were filling our hearts with beauty, awe, and wonder at the amazing reefs as they flourished as God intended them to.
