I stood in my driveway and waved my last goodbye. Slowly, the blue van backed away from my neighbor's house. I watched as it drove down the road, until I could not see it any longer.

My dad wrapped his strong arm around my shoulder and squeezed.

"It's going to be OK," he said.

No, it's not! I thought as I walked inside.

I wiped tears from my eyes as I walked up the stairs to my room. I took the picture of Grace and me off my bulletin board and looked down at it.

We're BFFs! Why did she have to move?

As I lay on my bed, I remembered what she had done for me a year before. . . .

My mom had invited Grace Clarence, our new neighbor, to come with us on vacation. We were going to the beach, and Mom thought it would be nice to invite Grace since she had just moved in. I was completely against it. I wanted my best friend, Allison, to come, but my mom insisted on Grace joining us, instead.

We packed for the beach and left. I read (or pretended to) during the whole two-hour drive there.

When we arrived at the hotel, we unloaded our luggage. Grace and I shared a room. She got the floor, and I got the bed.

The next morning I woke to the sun shining through the window. We grabbed bagels from the lobby and walked to the beach.

"Umm, so Grace, do you want to build a sand castle?" I asked.

"Sure," she said quietly.

While we were building, I decided to ask Grace about herself.

By the time we finished the sand castle, I learned we had a lot in common. We both were 10, liked the color pink and played soccer.

We also had a lot of differences. Grace was the strongest swimmer on her old swim team, had been playing piano since she was 5 and was a Christian. Unlike me, who could barely dog paddle, could only play "Old MacDonald" on the piano and hadn't ever touched a Bible.

Grace and I got along pretty well and finished the castle by lunchtime. After a picnic lunch, we decided to go swimming.

After playing in the waves for an hour, I decided it would be fun to go out into deeper water. I grabbed my boogie board and gestured for Grace to come.

"Sure, let me get my board."

We waded out to knee-high water, then started boogie-boarding into deeper water. When the water was chin-deep, I asked Grace if she wanted to swim out farther.

"It can get dangerous if you're not a strong swimmer," Grace said.

"Just because you can swim better than me doesn't mean I'm bad!" I said. "I'm going out farther!"

I swam out until I couldn't touch the bottom. Suddenly, a huge wave hit me. My boogie board was tossed away, and I was pushed under. I tried to swim up to the surface, but I couldn't. I was being carried out to sea. I knew I would drown.

But then strong arms grabbed me and began to pull me out. My rescuers tugged me to shore. Once there, I saw Grace and a lifeguard beside me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"A wave pushed you under," Grace said, "and you couldn't swim. The lifeguard and I swam out there and got you."

"Wait, you rescued me?" I asked Grace.

"Yes," she answered.

"But why? You could have died!"

"I did it because God doesn't want any of us to die without knowing Him," Grace said. "If I had died, I would have gone to heaven, but you..."

Tears filled my eyes as I realized Grace had risked her life for me. Grace continued to talk, telling me how God had given His only Son for me, too. She said that by grace, not ourselves, we could be saved.

I closed my eyes, lowered my head and asked Jesus into my heart. That day on the beach, my mother, father, the lifeguard and I were all saved by Grace.