Oceans by Hillsong https://youtu.be/6GGFb6LcX3U

²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

Matthew 14:22-33

Gifts from the Sea

A storm blew through last night churning the surf and the winds whipped the sand. As the sun came up, I sprang into a jaunt down the beach to pursue my beachcombing hobby. What gifts would the sea offer me today? Treasures of conchs? Piles of periwinkles? A starfish or sand dollar? No. .No. 

 

Instead, I was given a prolific array of the unexpected.

 

Foam

 

Foam. The sea churned like a pot of boiling salt water on the stove and the result is frothy foam. Rich oxygenated bubbles of life-giving oxygen for the inhabitants of the deep. As this water rushes ashore the breeze blows the froth across the sand and the rest flows back into the sea in a swirl at my feet.

 

Feathers

 

Feathers. Black, gray, and white feathers were strewn across the sand beaten flat by the pounding surf. Feathers dislodged in 40-50 mph winds from the sandpipers, seagulls, and pelicans. Quills I may try to use as an instrument of writing. Unexpected treasure!

 

 

 

Footprints. Small feet. Large feet. Bare feet. Sneaker feet. Bird feet. Tire tracks. Here, then washed away. Where are they going? Did they leave, as the Rabbi’s teach, their dust behind to be absorbed by one who puts their footprint into the one left behind? And why is it that the picture of the print appears raised and not depressed? A wonder for sure.

 

 

Fragments.

Shards of cockle shells scattered across the flattened shore. Fragments of once whole beings. Seashells on the beach represent the death of the ocean’s inhabitants. Only the very smallest shells remain intact. The life of these critters is incredibly brief. It became food for another. Its demise provided life to another. Beauty remains even in death and destruction.

 

Storms

 

So what is the lesson here? It is really very simple. Our lives will be subjected to storms. The “fallout” is both life-giving (foam) and life pruning (feathers) and our journey is seen by some but not all (footprints) and can leave us broken, and parts of us die (fragments). God is in the details! He knows where you are on the beach! He guides your walk, places the gifts for you to find, He even uses the shattered parts of you in surprising ways!!!

 

 

 

Storms are powerful forces in our lives and a source of incomparable beauty. If you are a child of God, He will not prevent the storm but He will be present in it! Face the storm head-on into the wind. He beckons you to embrace the storm. He sent you into it!

 

 

Treasures or Gifts from the sea

After the storm is past, look for your treasures, gifts from the sea! I promise they are there but you may need to do a bit of beachcombing to find them! Be open to the unexpected. Listen to the sounds of wind and waves. His voice is the still, small voice and you must quiet your own to hear.

 

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

I Kings 19:11-12