"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast." (Psalm 139:9-10 NIV)
It’s been two full days since we went to sleep on the beach and I’m still thinking about what it was like to wake up by the sea; the waves crashing, the gulls screaming, the ocean breeze without relent. It was an epic adventure for sure; pre-dawn light creeping into our dusty Subaru as the waters rushed against the sand.
The ocean is pervasive: it hangs in the air, clings to your skin, and your hair, without ever setting so much as a toe in the surf. That day, strong winds had set the warning flag to red. My watch alerted me to the roar of high decibels and my heart pounded in response. When the sun made appearance, it glinted gold upon the far away waves – setting the horizon on fire slowly until she at last scattered her glitter at our feet.
How can an overnight trip to the beach become a spiritual experience?
How can it not?
"...what may be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly see, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." (Romans 1:20 NIV)
Isn’t everything spiritual in nature? Isn’t our God every where and every when, endless plying for our ambling attentions? Isn’t He proving His power and authority and creative imagination over and over again?
I must admit, that morning I was utterly overwhelmed by the waters. The crashing breakers caught my attention. The golden sunlight captivated my soul. The sand was vast and the beach was empty in those early hours. I stood at the brink, breaking with the waves: crashing, crashing, crashing. I reeled at the scope of the waters before me, the Gulf they belong to and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Standing at the edge of everything, I felt dwarfed by the magnitude and restraint of such a body of water. It was daunting. Humbling. Worship-inducing.
Our magnificent yet personal God pins the waters in their place. He hovers over the power and chaos. He upholds the firmament beneath them. He summons the tides in and out by the mandate of the moon. The whole solar system responds to His invocation.
I considered the largess of that body of water and my mind sunk to the depths. The shore was approachable: a shelf of sand met with lapping waves. The brave wander out where feet may fail, into waters too deep to discern what lurks underneath. As vast as the surface area, the depths loom larger. Whole countries and continents lie undiscovered in darkness; lit by sonar and known alone by its prehistoric residents and Creator alike.
Amidst all this power and beauty I was chastised. Who am I to stand by the sea and clamor for alteration of the Almighty’s agenda? I can, at best, catch the briefest glimpse of what God is accomplishing and sustaining. The breadth and width and depth of His orchestration is far more vast than the piddling musings of my imagination.
"Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls: all Your waves and breakers have swept over me." (Psalm 42:7 NIV)
My heart sung the psalm as I stood by the ocean; a girl enrapt by the beach. My heart quaked anew at the vast, sweeping, and startling nature of God’s fondness for me. His thoughts toward me as numerous as the grains of sand beneath me. Who am I that He might care? A castaway on a sub-par shore in an anonymous corner of the world. Yet He has chosen to come and crash over my existence with His affection. The sheer enormity of His presence commanded my attention again.
"Who is man that thou are mindful of Him? (Psalm 8:4 NIV)
And what right do I have to object or even suggest?
"He who appoint s the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and the stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that it's waves roar - the Lord Almighty is His name." (Jeremiah 31:8 NIV)
Lord, I’ve been humbled again by Your awesome power and might. The waves and wind have renewed my attention. You are magnificent and I am in awe. I surrender anew to Your perfect plot: there is far more at stake than my three square feet of existence. Let this reality live on in my mind as I relinquish my will day after day. Amen.