If you’re familiar with motorsports and motorboats, you know a drag boat racing career has to have a beginning, and it starts with a high-powered drag boat being delivered into your possession. Without a boat you’re not a boat racer, you’re just a wanna-be-racer that has yet to give birth to the child of your dreams.

There are several stages to becoming a serious racer. First there is the introduction (the first date, or maybe love at first sight). Next there is the relationship (getting to know the sport, and its personalities). Then there is the engagement (becoming hooked on incredibly beautiful boats). And lastly the marriage ceremony (saying “I do” with all the love of your heart to a beautiful hull of an individual).

Now you arrive at the fluidity phase of the relationship. Conception: the result of a special intimacy between two parties resulting in a new “baby.” Development: the inner workings of the newly formed hull resulting in mysterious, but sometimes undetected inner growth. Pushing: the bringing forth of a newly developed hull that becomes something special for everyone to see and enjoy.
I’ve never witnessed a “Watercraft” drag boat being built, I’ve only seen the finished product ready to get out there and play with the rest of the family. A new boat is like a new baby to Gary (Wolf) McClendon, as he nurtures his newborns (“Isn’t she a cutie”) right into the hands of its proud new parents.

The new and proud parents have the responsibility of bringing her up in the ways of trustworthy, nurturing people, who promise to lovingly care for their newborn for all of her life, hopefully understanding this responsibility brings with it a proposal to honor God with your offspring; which can produce lifelong blessings in ways you never thought possible.

So how do we visualize this new creation in the spiritual sense? “But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit,” (John 3:6 MSG). Born of God? Yes. As believers, we too are born of God. The second birth is similar to the first one only this new hull (or body) was re-created by the Spirit of God. Re-created to compete in the only race that is recorded in heaven.

Heaven’s library has a big Book of names, not boat names, just believers’ names: those who were conceived by the power of the Spirit of God, people who are now dead to their old lives, but alive to their new life in Christ.

A new boat starts out with materials being joined together in a room (or womb) in the hands of a master craftsman, eventually ending up in the water to fulfill its purpose as a drag boat for fast fun in the shining sun.

A human being starts out in the water (of the womb) in the hands of the Master Craftsman (God) and eventually, hopefully, and prayerfully, ends up serving the Lord to fulfill their God given purpose in the land of the rising Son. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,” (Ephesians 2:10).

There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into the construction of each and every drag boat regardless of the builder. Remember one thing though, it’s kind of like putting a new baby up for adoption, after you birthed it, it’s hard for the builder to part with it. That is why “God is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance,” (2 Peter 3:9).

There was a lot of blood in the sweat, and a lot of tears shed in anguish for the people of this world who were created to be reflections of their Creator, but refused His offer to become spiritually alive. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” (Ephesians 2:19).

As in most construction projects (like a drag boat), there are always problems that can slow down or side-track production. And in the same way, the enemy can always find a way to push back a child of God from the finish line. But God says I gave birth to you so you can be empowered to give birth to what I have placed within you my child.

When you have taken delivery of a new boat, everything may be different from what you were used to. When a child is born everything within a family changes too. The same is true when you become a child of God. You’ve been re-birthed from above, and now everything in your life should be affected in a sanctified way (at least it is supposed to?).

“Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ's life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you,” (Galatians 4:19 MSG).

At the conception of your spiritual re-birth process, God’s love for you became a reality as you now understand what God sent His Son to do for you.

In the developmental stage, God knows what it will take to produce His character in you and He is willing to do whatever it takes for you to be a successful believer.

In the final stage where it’s time to push on through to the other side. You may have to go to class to learn the correct breathing and body control requiring you to push hard “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,” (Galatians 4:19).

Not every new baby (or new boat) is loved or easily recognized by everyone in this problematical world. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God,” (John 1:10-13).

These Scripture verses were speaking about Jesus (His immaculate conception as the Christ child) and our remarkable re-birth as children of God. John wrote about Jesus, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood,” (John 1:14 MSG). I hope you understand what a privilege it is to have Him in your neighborhood.

When Wolf takes an order for “A Special Watercraft,” he knows its time to get down to serious work. He wants the new baby to be healthy, come out looking great, and be the apple of someone’s eye. He knows that all the hard labor was worth it when the finished product is birthed. When that “baby” is in the arms of its new parents, he gladly releases her to be all she is suppose to be.

As believers there are stages to your spiritual growth. If you skip a stage, you may not become all God wants you to be…you see…because He says golly…I want to change your life for free…and if you want more I’ll give you the key…but I can’t let you live the same old life to a tee…or you may lose your desire to become an over-comer for Me. That is why the Scriptures tell us to “Run in such a way as to get the prize,” (1Corinthians 9:24).

If you’ve become luke-warm about the race of life, it can lead to a half-hearted effort in your walk with God. God didn’t call you to be a runner-up. He called you to be the best you can be—a winner.

The greatest motive for building a spiritual boat that will weather the storms of life is that you must come to the realization that what happens in you is more important that what happens to you.

Does the Bible say the angels in heaven rejoice when someone puts their trust in “A Special Watercraft?” Or does the Bible say the angels in heaven rejoice when someone puts their trust in the “water” of the word…Jesus Christ? “Blessed are those who have learned to…walk in the light of your presence,” (Psalm 89:15).

Many people never learn how to walk (with God), they either think it’s not my job to be bold, or it’s only for those that are old. There’re afraid to change gears or careers or shed tears worrying about getting on in years, being caught up in past fears, always thinking about what may hurt others’ ears, not realizing that God always covers our rears.

“A Special Watercraft” belongs to all those people throughout the ages who have totally trusted in Christ for their eternal salvation…trying their best to become more like Jesus. So the question is can others around you tell that you are indeed a child of God?

Therefore, learn to walk, learn to talk, but never balk at building your life around the great Physician who brought you into this world. The Bible gives us the best boating or birthing advise, “Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived,” (1 John 2:6 MSG).