I had the marvelous opportunity of traveling to the beach with some of my best friends yesterday. We packed up our superfluous amount of bags, and drove through the beautiful evergreen forests of Oregon to the charming little town of Cannon Beach.
To me, the beach has always been a place of escapade, excitement and insightful realization. As a child, I remember the highlights of every trip to the beach as being sand-castle building, sand-crab catching and wave dodging. I could never wait to get messy building and forming sand creations, unbeknownst by me that they would be washed away come high tide. Later, tide pools became the attraction of interest; catching hermit crabs, tricking sea anemones into closing their feely tentacles around my intrusive fingers, and peering into nooks and crannies for other creatures became my means of entertainment.
As I learned more, as I was able to comprehend things beyond the visual and tangible aspects of life, a whole new level of appreciation arose. I’m not sure when the switch occurred, but at some point the beach became a place of much more than simple and trivial discoveries; there came a point when I would look out across the sand, past the rolling waves, onward to the horizon and continue gazing into the sky and the clouds and… the very majesty of God. To stand on the edge of where the land meets the sea, and pause for even one second to take in the beauty of that single moment is altogether indescribable. The sunlight dancing across water in the ever moving current, the vapor rising from the waves and fading into the air, the innumerable grains of soft sand between my toes, the silhouette of seagulls eclipsing the sun as they fly above the endless horizon… there is no end to the majesty of God. To be a part of His creation, to be delighted in more than this glorious, vast ocean scene, to be loved by the creator of this picturesque beauty, translates into something deeper than simply seeing. The beach is one of the most powerful, undeniable displays of God. When I stand, with my feet submerged in the sand, and stop for this one moment in time, I am fully assured that my belief in God is far greater than any other thing in existence.
Even going to the beach with my girls to hangout, play soccer, gaze at clouds, eat ice-cream, and laugh uncontrollably, gives me an opportunity to pause for one moment and be reminded of the majesty of God.
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