Het Begin van het Leven

Finally, finally we reached the coast. Men pulled our boat onto the sand. We were safe. Alive. I fell on the beach and could not get up. I was alive but I felt dead inside. God had saved me but why? I did not deserve it.

My friend found me after three days. He looked terrible. He was changed. The storm had broken something in him. "How are you?" he asked softly. His voice was different. The laughing boy was gone. Now he looked like an old man.

His father was with him. When he heard who I was, the old captain became very serious. "Young man," he said, "you must never go to sea again. This storm is God's warning to you. You are not meant to be a sailor. Go home while you can."

"Will your son stop sailing?" I asked. The captain shook his head. "That is different. It is his work. It is his life. But you? You came for adventure. And look what happened! Maybe you are cursed. Maybe you are like Jonah in the Bible."