You’re standing on the sand, letting it stick to your toes, nuzzling the under the millions of grains. You walk from the dry, toasty sand to the wet, perfect for making sand castles sand. The sweet release of coolness travels up from the arches of your feet to your spine. Some white foam from one of the waves moves toward you, you scrunch your toes embracing yourself for the water. It’s chilly. You know if you just throw yourself in it will be better. You prepare yourself, take in a deep breath of that fresh salty air and run for it. Your arms and legs are moving so fast that you barely notice how deep you’re getting. You maneuver your body over the waves in such a childlike way, not caring that if anyone saw you right now they’d wonder what the heck you were doing. You’re finally deep enough to submerge your whole body so when the jackpot wave rushes toward you, you dive in head first. You close your eyes, hold your breath and swim under its powerful crash. Within seconds you are back up gasping for air. Another wave comes and you let your body go limp as it throws you around the endless ocean. You let the waves toss you back and forth. Sometimes the waters are still, peaceful. The sun rays bounce off of that sparkling blue in front of you and heat up your skin. It’s the ultimate tranquilizer. You are so minute compared to the vast amount of water that surrounds you. Sometimes the tide picks up, you get caught up in a rip current and are pulled under. You tumble and hit the sand, salt water fills your nose and you jump to the surface as fast as you can. After hours of being in the ocean you take the last wave to shore. The moment you hit dry sand you plop your soaked, worn body on those warm grains. You give yourself time to catch your breath, you’ve done it an ultimate beach day.
I feel like that’s how our relationship with Christ is. An ultimate beach day. When you first decide to give your life to Christ it’s sweet and pure like walking on warm untouched sand. Moving further and digging deeper sometimes I find myself embraced for what the Lord has for me. Then there’s the point where you just have to go. Jump in that water. Throw yourself into what the Lord has for you. Sometimes it’s a season of sweet calmness. Others the waves are rocky, you stumble and can’t catch your breath. But don’t those moments make the calm so much sweeter?
I think God wants us to run to Him the same way we run into the endless ocean. With a childlike joy and faith, we just go there’s no looking back, only embracing what’s next. Just as we let the waves take us away, we must let the Lord guide us and bring us wherever He calls.
After a lifetime of tossing in the waves of His glory we will ride into eternity. We will be at shore, no longer in danger of the tidal waves but completely rested at His feet.
How sweet to know how little those beach days will be compared to a lifetime with our Father.
