Throughout October we’ve been privileged to be between mountains and ocean. I’ve spent several hours on the beach hanging out, watching the waves, and breathing in deep breaths of Indian Ocean air. Last Saturday I went on a prayer walk with the ladies from FBC along the beach between Muizenberg and St. James. It was beautiful. Auntie Viv, Sharisse, and I took a bit of a walk beforehand along the beach. Sharisse and I were exclaiming our love of the ocean, waves, beach, salty air, and more to Auntie Viv when we arrived. She explained her dislike of spending all day “in the wind… who would leave the comfort of their home for WIND?” and then continued to explain that sometimes when she is counseling someone she brings them to the beach because it’s calming.
I nodded in agreement not expecting much more than that, but what came next blew my mind.
She began to explain in few words (she is a woman of few, but profound, words) that the ocean is God’s love for us. It is endless. You can’t see the other side of it. It also continually washes up over us. It’s constantly getting rid of the bad things – the ocean always leaves the bad things on the beach. It always comes back to us. It’s never far away, even at low tide.
Over the past week this conversation has been on my mind. I’ve been marveling at God’s creation for quite some time (for years, even) and have just been thinking on this analogy of the ocean as God’s love. This past Saturday I was sitting on the beach (well, on a large rock, really) in Simon’s Town mesmerized by the ebb and flow of the teal and white waves as they crashed over course rocks, but gushed with ease over others.
God brought to my mind the passage of scripture where Jesus tells Peter, “upon this rock will I build my church (Matthew 16). In essence we are all rocks. Most of us are on the banks of God’s love. The waves of His love only wash over us at high tide. Others of us are submerged or huge rocks surrounded by the all-sufficient love of our El-Shaddai. Regardless of where we are, we all have rough spots. Those rocks that have been subjected to the incessant colliding waves for longer are less jagged than those that have been recently placed in the path of the waves. While the waves are sometimes destructive, they smooth the roughness of those objects in their wake.
And, if I may be so bold as to suggest that the mountains were once covered by the oceans, God has built mountains with the waves, with His love. Because of that, these mountains provide a higher point from which the vastness of God’s love can be better understood than from a more level viewpoint.
Sometimes we have to get farther away from God’s love to understand its vastness. Then, we run to it, desiring it, desiring to be refreshed by it. The salt may seem dehydrating, but it serves as an exfoliation – this is grace.
Those rocks submerged in the love of God provide a place for colonies of kelp, seaweed, and anemone to grow and thrive which in turn provides a place of solace for fish and other animals.
Upon those rocks God has built His church.
