I just got back from the beach. It was a quick, five day trip to Florida. As usual, I went prepared with a book, my journal, and my laptop. I ended up not using any of them. Since two of our five days were spent traveling there and back, we had a total of three days on the beach. We made the most of each day. Since the book I wanted to read was on my Kindle and therefore too difficult to read in the bright Florida sun, I decided to simply be present in the moment, whether that was splashing in the ocean with my sister and nephew, or watching people walk by.
It’s always fun to watch people; I watched groups interact and tried to figure out the dynamics of the relationships. I checked out cute bathing suits and made mental notes of the ones I liked. I watched kiddos build sand castles and thought back to the days when we played with our kids at the beach. But the things of nature are my favorite things to watch no matter where I may be. I watched little crabs scoot across the sand and into their holes; they were nearly the same color as that white, sugar sand of the Gulf. How quickly they moved at the slightest vibration! I watched birds work diligently to peck out the tiny coquina clams that bury themselves in the sand as the the waves receded. And I spent quite a while observing the ocean and its waves as they came up on the beach. It struck me how every time they rushed up onto the shore, they only went so far before the ocean sucked them back up into itself. It’s as if they have an invisible boundary where they stop, like one of those underground electric fences people have for their dogs. Then I remembered Jeremiah 5:22. “Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.” This is not the only verse that tells us how God controls the waters of the ocean. Proverbs 8:29 says, “…He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth…”
There is great comfort in those verses. If I believe they are true, if I believe God does in fact prevent the ocean from overtaking the land, can He not also be trusted with the waves and storms of my own life?
Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” God is always in control. He will keep the waves from overtaking us. We play a part in this, though. And I think nature also demonstrates this for us. When hurricanes hit, obviously the ocean does overtake the land. It does exceed its boundaries. Where is God then, you might ask? That’s a pretty “deep” question (pun intended), and I can’t possibly thoroughly answer it here. The very short answer is this: sin corrupted everything in our world, not just humans. Nature was also cursed when Adam and Eve sinned. In God’s perfect world, there were no storms or hurricanes or earthquakes. But sin messed that up. Adam and Eve chose not to trust God’s promises. They disobeyed God, and now our world is broken until Jesus comes back and restores it all.
Think about Peter when he decided to get out of the boat and walk out to Jesus on the water. (Matthew 14) As long as he was looking at Jesus, he stayed on top of the sea. When he saw the wind, he became fearful, and he stopped trusting that Jesus could guide and protect him. He began to sink below the waters. The same is true for us. God keeps the storms of our life from overtaking us, but we must, at the same time, keep our eyes on Him. We can’t look around and become so scared that we stop believing in His love for us.
Which takes me back to where I started with this post. I would have missed that reminder, that real life object lesson, if I’d been reading my book. Being still and free from distractions gave me the space to observe and ponder the truths of God revealed to us in nature. It gave my brain time to connect what I was witnessing to what I’d read in God’s Word. In Psalm 46:10, God commands us to be still and know that He is God. We don’t really know how to be still today. It takes more than five minutes of quiet and stillness for us to stop juggling all the pins we have going around in our head. It takes more than glancing at the ocean and saying, “Oh, that’s a pretty view.” It requires effort and concentration to discipline our minds and bodies to free ourselves from all the “urgent” things in life that are pulling at our hearts and minds. The amount of time differs from person to person and often depends on our circumstances. But, oh, it’s worth it, my friend. I wasn’t sad that I didn’t read my book. I was grateful for the opportunity to watch God’s creation continue to teach me about Him. Often what I see is not a new piece of information for me; certainly in my many years of following Christ I have heard about and known how God is with us in our storms. But God always brings these reminders at just the right time. I needed to see the reminder of God’s power over the waves.
Go outside. Choose a bird. A tree. A flower. Study it. Don’t casually glance at it. See what the Lord might have for you.