The Beach

Happy Labor Day! So my plans for labor day changed today and I am thankful they did. You see I was going to continue to study and watch movies today but then I decided not to worry about that. Instead I was working on cleaning and just giving some time to myself. But I started thinking about what people usually do on Labor Day. In school most, if not all of, my friends were spending their holiday at the beach. So what makes the beach so much fun? Well there is the sand between your toes, the rolling tides of the ocean, and the wonderful feeling of the sun on your skin.

But what if there was more too it then that? What if the beach had a lesson to teach us?

Previously I was walking along the beach at a retreat center during a Vocare weekend (a church retreat). As I was walking I thought I heard someone call my name so I turned back but no one was there. But when I looked back I saw that the waves had washed away all my footsteps that were left in the sand. Every single step I had taken, had been filled with sand and water and erased from the surface. Isn't that what God's mercy is all about right there? Look at it this way, every step in that sand was a sin or flaw in my armor, in the perfectness that is the smooth sandy beach. But God's those kinks and steps in the sand are nothing for the mighty power that is the waves of God's mercy. His mercy washes over us and wipes away our sins and imperfections like they are nothing to him. Wave after wave, he wipes  us clean and forgives our actions just as quickly as the waves smooth out the beach.

And you can't hide from it....

It is impossible to hide from this forgiving force. Go sit on the beach and pull a hand full of sand out of the ocean, see all those little shells scrambling to hide back in the sand. There are people that feel as if they act like those little creatures they can hide from the force of God's mercy. But you can't, it is still there whether you see it from the point of view of the person walking along the beach, or feel the force like the little creatures in the sand; it will ALWAYS be there. The waves will never stop. The forgiveness always present.

Psalms 86:5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy to all them that call on you.

He is ready to forgive. The only sin that isn't forgiven is the one that isn't asked to be forgiven. So embrace the waves of Mercy that wash over you. And next time you go to the beach, look around and see the beauty that is Christ and God's love.