There is no place I love to be more than the beach. The smell of the ocean in the air and the feeling of soft sand beneath my feet. To stand at the water's edge, allowing the now warm Atlantic, to wash over my bare feet, gazing out over the horizon as far as my eyes can see, while the gentle ocean breeze blows across my skin with its invisible touch - is truly soul soothing. No matter how many times I have gone, (even since being a young child), it has never ceased to stir within me the same deep affection.
When we moved to Florida 9 years ago, we went to the beach every single day for probably the first year or so. (My husband and I absolutely LOVE to hunt sea glass and interesting shells.) One particular beach we enjoy has BIG coral areas with a lot of different fish and often great shells and sea glass to find. I remember having had a wonderful day and deciding we would come right back the next day to get some more. When the next day came and we arrived at the beach, we found that it had changed! The overnight storm had produced great change and there were literally NO SHELLS anywhere. In fact, the landscape itself looked very different than it had just 24 hours prior.
Because we were so new to Florida, the changes that would sometimes happen daily, always amazed us. I remember a Tropical Depression that had once come through - arriving at a local beach that had just two days earlier, been wide and flat, - had drastically changed. Approaching we found that the distance from boardwalk to beaches edge had become very short and the beach itself had dropped a good 7-8 feet down to the water! It was stunning! You know, God says that His reflection can be seen in the world that surrounds us. Knowing this, it occurred to me that what happened on the beach was very much like what happened, (and continues to happen), in my own life.
There was a time that I lost my way and everything became what seemed at the time, a hopeless mess. There was a time that I did not want to live anymore because my circumstances appeared to be so overwhelming and impossible to come back from. Yet thankfully, I was rescued and eventually came to the Lord alone in the bunk bed at a Girl's Home I was living in. I had been told over and over that Jesus loved me "just like I was" and I desperately wanted to believe it was true, but I had great guilt and shame for the life I had lead. I remember laying on my back, (my roommate asleep below), and spoke saying, "Lord, I don't know why you would ever want someone like me...but if you will have me...I want you to have all of me". I wept very hard that night, because in that moment, it was as if all the pain that I'd carried around like a bag of rocks, just came flooding out, allowing me the best nights sleep I'd had in years.
From that day to this, I've experienced God's constant presence, infinite patience and amazing grace in my life to be visible through its ever changing and shifting landscape, as He has continued to make life giving changes from the inside out. Sometimes change came with sudden intensity and sometimes so subtly, that it was impossible to know when it had actually happened. Indeed my love of the beach has grown, because through its beauty I am reminded that like it, I am always being made new.
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