Hi,
When was the last time you’ve been to the ocean? The vast waters stretching out before you. Waves crashing on the shore washing up small stones and shells. The soft sandy beach shrinking and growing with the ebb and flow of high tide and low tide. Predictable, yet not at all.
I’ve always been slightly afraid of the ocean. You just don’t know what is right under that deep blue surface. The currents that can pull you out and push you in and topple you over (not to mention…sharks!) It’s a fear of the unknown that also feels a bit like awe.
I was walking along the shore- little pebbles, shells and small rocks scattered making dimples in the sand as the water washed in and out. Like tiny soldiers standing vigil against the pull of the waves. Creating tiny ripples in the water as they attempt to resist the draw of the ocean.
There are sharp jagged shells and rocks that jut out of the sand and threaten the soft underside of your feet as you navigate careful steps. Then there are the impossibly smooth and round stones that have been tumbled and shaped by the relentless tide.
I think I tend to feel like those small stones. Planted, yet trying to stand firm in resisting the pull of the sea. Jagged at first, yet over time, edges become softened as they allow the elements to slowly wear them away. An act of surrender.
It’s so easy to feel like nothing is being accomplished. In the mundane of caring for our children and our homes. In the dishes or the laundry or the soothing or the discipline. The tides of the season, predictable but somehow not at all. We are slowly being shaped. Still the same but somehow new.
“And we all…are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Friend, if you are feeling like you aren’t doing much. Wondering if maybe your gifts would have been put to better use somewhere else, I want to remind you that you are exactly where you need to be. Sometimes when we don’t see results, it feels like we missed it. We must not have heard the Lord. Maybe He has just left us in this seemingly deserted place and we have nothing to show for it.
I struggled a bit with this analogy. Was the ocean supposed to represent God as He shapes us or the world as it beats against us? Do we stand firm in the sand or allow ourselves to be caught up and tumbled into the depths?
And maybe that answer is different for you than it is for me. Maybe God is asking you to remain faithful where you are. Today and tomorrow and the next day. Slowly being shaped and formed in the seemingly endless tasks that continue to repeat themselves over and over again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Maybe He is asking you to take a step forward or a step back. Tumbling into the unknown. Being unearthed and moved somewhere new. Making a new impression in the sand, allowing a different side to be exposed.
Whatever it may be, here’s what I know to be true: He is Lord. He rules over the wind and the waves yet no matter how vast He may seem, He knows where every one of those stones has been placed.
“Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea the Lord on high is mighty.” Psalm 93:4