musings from the beach...

We spent the past week at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Having lived most of my life in the desert of Arizona, large bodies of water fascinate me- and the Atlantic Ocean is certainly a large body of water! I never tired of watching it... high tide, low tide, the calm in the morning or the fierceness of an afternoon thunderstorm. Every day as I watched the waves roll in and out or felt the tug of the current as I played in the surf, I was reminded of God's power and strength.

Your throne, O LORD, has been established from time immemorial. You yourself are from the everlasting past. The mighty oceans have roared, O LORD. The mighty oceans roar like thunder; the mighty oceans roar as they pound the shore.  But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore – the LORD above is mightier than these! Psalm 93:2-4 (NLT)

My granddaughter, Lexie (age 2), and I gathered seashells one afternoon. She told me over and over again, "Look! Bunches of 'sheshells'!" as we found patch after patch of seashells scattered on the beach. They stretched in front of us as far as we could see. As we began picking some up, I noticed how different each one was. Although most were broken, we could still see how they were different in color or texture and how the unbroken edge was unique, like a fingerprint.

O LORD, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both great and small.  Psalm 104:24-25  (NLT)

I wonder how any one can miss seeing God in our world... His fingerprints are all over it! I was reminded of Steven Curtis Chapman's song The Fingerprints of God: 

"...I can see the fingerprints of God

And I know it's true

You're a masterpiece that all creation

Quietly applauds

And you're covered with

The fingerprints of God..."

While I believe the lyrics are referring to a person, I think they are equally true of all of God's creation, from the tiniest sea shell/sea creature to the complexity of man. We can see the infiniteness of God through His creation... in the seashells at the beach, the stars in the sky, the flowers that bloom, the variety of animals. There are approximately 20,000 (yes, that's twenty thousand!) species of butterflies alone. How could that possibly be random chance?

Yep, there is nothing like being immersed (sometimes literally- those waves were BIG!) in nature to bring us closer to God.