I Look To The Sea

This past week I had a wonderful opportunity to have some rest and relaxation with my family and to spend a lot of time on or near the ocean. 

On one particular day, I was sitting on the deck of a ship observing how calm and still the Gulf of Mexico was in that moment.  It was blue and clear, and deep, so deep. 

I began to think about how deceiving the still, deep water was then. 

We were gliding through it as though we were its master, but we most definitely were not.  It occurred to me that there was a whole world below the surface of the then-placid sea--a world that was vast, foreign and dangerous. 

I also reflected on how at any moment the calm, seemingly harmless water could turn ugly and destructive with just a bit of wind or the surge of a storm. 

And then I thought about how despite all of our efforts to know the world below the surface of the sea, it was filled with mysteries, things beyond our reach or imagination. 

"The sea is like God." I wrote in my journal.  "God is like the sea." 

There is so much that I don't know of God.  There are moments when I feel as though more intimate knowledge and understanding of God is within my reach--especially when things are calm and manageable. 

But when the storms come, and the winds blow... when what is below the surface is beyond my comprehension... that's when it's hard to hang on to my own understanding, my own ideas about God and what God is up to. 

In the end, it comes down to my ability to trust and believe that where God is carrying me is exactly where I am meant to go.  And that even the storms are moving me in that direction. 

And that the unknowable deep is as much a part of it as all that I can see. 

May this be true for you today and every day.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.