October 14, 2007

The ocean.

There is NOTHING on earth like the ocean....NOTHING!!

I love the beauty of the mountains, their majesty....especially in the fall when the colors are ablaze...but there is NOTHING like the ocean!

I love the woods...especially OUR woods. I love how the wind moves through the trees and sounds like the waves at the beach. I love it in spring when the leaves are budding and the dogwoods are at their peak. I love it in fall when the leaves are turning and the colors are brilliant.

But there is NOTHING on earth...NOTHING in creation to compare with the ocean!!

It speaks to me like nothing else. I can stand completely mesmerized by it, watching it for hours on end.

I was there this week. The very first day I was there I could not wait to get there. Like a treasured friend that I had not seen in a long time, I rushed to its side. (I even left watching a UT game on TV to get to the beach!) Yet I could not help myself. I HAD to get there as quickly as I could. It was calling me.

As I stood before it, watching the ebb and flow of the waves, it was as if it were washing over me. With each wave that came in, a load of care went out with the tide. There is a song that says "I've got PEACE like a river...". They need to change that to "I've got PEACE like the ocean"! That is what it brings to me .....PEACE.

It speaks to me of God. Of His constancy...the fact that He NEVER changes!

The ocean has been since God created the world. No matter what is going on in the world at any given moment, the tide still ebbs and flows. There can be wars going on across the ocean, bombs exploding, tsunamis sweeping across miles of shoreland, earthquakes destroying thousands of homes and the ocean just continues to ebb and flow.....in and out....in and out....hour after hour, day after day, year in and year out. It never stops. It has not stopped since it was created.

God's love for us continues in just the same way. Day in and day out...no matter what storms blow across our lives. He is still there, His love never changes.

His love for us is immeasurable just like the ocean. We cannot begin to fathom the depths of the ocean. We have no real idea of how much water it holds or how deep it is in places. Nor can we measure the depths of God's love for us. Psalms tells us his very thoughts of us number MORE than the grains of sand! Now I can tell you there are too many grains of sand on the beach to ever be able to count! And, as I looked at that sand this week, I was reminded that God has thought that many thoughts just about ME!!!!!!!!!! And, He's thought that many thoughts about YOU, too!! Isn't that amazing?!

When I am at the beach and I get close enough to the ocean waves that I can shut out everything else, it is as if there is no one else on earth but me and God. The waves whisper my name. Peace floods my soul and my mind. Calmness rushes over me. As far as the eye can see there is nothing but ocean and sky...both completely created by God, untouched by human hands. Just God and His divine creation. As the waves rush in to the shore, sweeping the beach clean of any debris, the waves retreat, taking with them every care, every worry, every thing that clutters the mind and takes our thoughts from Him. Our eye is drawn to it and to the ONE who created it and we are reminded that we are but a vapor...here today and gone tomorrow...but the ocean...the ocean will continue to ebb and flow until God brings it all to an end.

I am thankful to have once again been able to drink in the beauty of the ocean and hear God's voice call out to me in the splendor of it all. There is NO PLACE ON EARTH LIKE THE OCEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you God for communing with me there.