If you’re like me, you love the ocean. The fact that I’m spending my last month here in a beach town is one I don’t think I’ll ever get over.
There’s just something incredible about standing on the shore, hearing the waves crash, feeling the cool water rush over your feet, feeling the sand beneath your feet. Looking out on the vastness of the ocean and feeling incredibly small. Finding the treasures hidden in the sand: a beautiful seashell, a smooth piece of sea-glass, tiny crabs.
If you’re even more like me, you also see God’s hand in every aspect of Creation. And you also love allegory. So here’s some random observations I’ve made about the ocean and God’s love for us.
-God’s love is so incredibly vast it’s unfathomable. Just like our minds can’t comprehend how big and deep and wide the ocean is, we can never come close to fathoming how immense God’s love for us is. There’s no end to it!
-God’s love is like getting drenched by a crashing wave. Do you remember as a child getting caught under a crashing wave? The awe you felt at feeling the power of the ocean? The cool, drenching water that was refreshing, yet terrifying at the same time? The discomfort of salt water up your nose? Well, God’s love is like that. It’s refreshing, powerful, a little terrifying at times (I mean, the God of the entire universe loves YOU…what the heck??), uncomfortable sometimes in this world we live in, but ultimately the biggest adventure ever. Just like you tumbled out of the ocean feeling like you had the most exciting experience ever, when you allow God’s love to consume you like an ocean wave, it’s just beyond words, in a I’m-not-sure-I’ll-survive-but-I-wouldn’t-miss-this-for-the-world exciting kind of way.
-God’s love is like standing on the sand. In this world, nothing ever seems to last. Things constantly shift and change under your feet, and you worry that you’ll never find solid footing. Yet, somehow, God always works through all these shifts and changes to keep you upright. You always have a solid ground to stand on, even when it doesn’t feel like it.
-God’s love is like hunting for seashells. I adore seashell hunting. I love to find unusual ones with gorgeous colors and patterns. That God spoke everything into being is a staggering enough thought, but the fact that this includes tiny, impossibly intricate seashells is just mind-blowing. God spoke freaking seashells into existence, people! He created those by SPEAKING! Anyway, hunting for them is so fun. Whether it’s finding them just lying there, or digging them up out of the sand, I love the search for the beauty that once was hidden in the sea. And I always get a picture of God doing the same thing. Of hunting down the beach, looking for the hidden beauty it contains. He walks through our hearts, looking for beautiful things He can draw out. Yet He doesn’t just stop there. Just like I enjoy showing off and displaying my beach treasures, He likes to display to the world what He’s drawn out in us. He loves to show off our beauty! It speaks of His love that He takes the time to painstakingly look deep inside us, just as I comb the beach for shells.
I could go on, but I’ll leave some allegories for y’all to find. The evidence of God’s love is all around us! Where will you find it today?
