Colleen And The Fountain

Colleen and the Fountain

Tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection . . . and appeared to many people.

Matthew 27:52-53

A few years ago, our church choir presented an Easter play about the resurrection of Christ, based on the Scripture verses above. We presented it as theater-in-the-round in the huge atrium of our church, surrounding a massive fountain.

My friend Colleen—a professional dramatist and an altogether delightful lady—played the lead. The finale centered on her character’s accepting Christ and being immersed in the fountain. We built wooden steps to help her get down into the water. And so that the water would be deep enough to actually immerse Colleen, we had stopped up the drains to allow the water level to rise.

Toward the end of the play, I suddenly noticed that the water level was much too high. A few more minutes, and we would need to change our play to “Noah and the Flood”!

I panicked, but I could not just walk off the stage. Finally able to make my exit, I ran to tell our stage manager about the water. He turned the water off just before it ran over the top and onto our unsuspecting audience. Whew.

Then it was time for the finale. Colleen started down into the fountain, but the extra water had caused the wooden steps to float unsteadily. With help from the man who was helping with the baptism, she finally managed to get her foot on the top step, push the steps down to the fountain floor, and make a wobbly descent. But two extra bodies in the fountain pushed the water level dangerously close to overflowing.

Fortunately, Colleen . . . and all of us . . . were saved as God protected us from dramatic disaster. Colleen’s lasting memory of the event is how incredibly cold the water was. She says, “Instead of being washed away, I think my sins were freeze-dried!”

Thank you, Lord, for saving us from our follies! Amen.