I grew up in Northern California, near San Francisco, but far enough east that the famous cool and fog didn't reach us.
On hot summer days we sometimes drove down to Santa Cruz to spend the day at the beach.
We didn't bring anything fancy, just our suits, some tanning lotion (we didn't know about sunscreen and skin cancer back then) and a big beach towel.
Some other beach-goer always had a radio, so the music was covered, too.
We'd bake in the sun, listening to the Beach Boys, until it was time to cool off in the ocean.
Pelicans dove, surfers rode the waves, kids screeched and laughed as the surf pounded them.
There's something primal about the beach, where water meets sand.
The end of land. The beginning of the wide, mysterious and shark-filled Pacific.
The roar of the waves and the ocean-scented breeze lulled the mind into a "place."
Even now, when I return to the Pacific, be it sunny San Diego or the cool and misty Northwest, I see people roam the beaches in search of that "place."
It's not an intellectual place, or even an emotional place.
The immensity of the ocean, the power of the surf, and the feeling of how small I am in comparison
all remind me of God.
I don't know how an atheist experiences the ocean and the beach.
But I cannot help but connect with the biblical God when I go to the place where the water and the land meet.
It is the place where God approaches and questions me:
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?"
"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb?"
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?"
"Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?" Job 38: 4,8,16,28 NIV Bible)
If you get the chance, journey to the ocean. Then wait for God to ask you what you think of Him.
Wonderful.
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8: 3,4)
On hot summer days we sometimes drove down to Santa Cruz to spend the day at the beach.
We didn't bring anything fancy, just our suits, some tanning lotion (we didn't know about sunscreen and skin cancer back then) and a big beach towel.
Some other beach-goer always had a radio, so the music was covered, too.
We'd bake in the sun, listening to the Beach Boys, until it was time to cool off in the ocean.
Pelicans dove, surfers rode the waves, kids screeched and laughed as the surf pounded them.
There's something primal about the beach, where water meets sand.
The end of land. The beginning of the wide, mysterious and shark-filled Pacific.
The roar of the waves and the ocean-scented breeze lulled the mind into a "place."
Even now, when I return to the Pacific, be it sunny San Diego or the cool and misty Northwest, I see people roam the beaches in search of that "place."
It's not an intellectual place, or even an emotional place.
The immensity of the ocean, the power of the surf, and the feeling of how small I am in comparison
all remind me of God.
I don't know how an atheist experiences the ocean and the beach.
But I cannot help but connect with the biblical God when I go to the place where the water and the land meet.
It is the place where God approaches and questions me:
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?"
"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb?"
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?"
"Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?" Job 38: 4,8,16,28 NIV Bible)
If you get the chance, journey to the ocean. Then wait for God to ask you what you think of Him.
Wonderful.
"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8: 3,4)
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ReplyDeleteHi Steve. I'll check out your blog. I sincerely hope you'll be a frequent visitor to mine as well.
DeleteYou reminded me of my one and only trip to California. I'll never forget the experience of cresting a hill and seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time. I can understand why people love the West Coast.
ReplyDeleteAll around me I see His hand. Can you imagine what this place was like BEFORE the fall?
Susan, I often try to imagine how this world would have been. I mean, if it's this beautiful now, what must it have been then? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.