Wednesday, April 14, 2010

My Life as a Wave

 They say that human beings are seventy percent water. The Bible says that our bodies were formed from the earth, but I think our blood must come from the sea. Salt water runs in my veins.

I just got back from visiting the ocean. We made our semi-annual trip to see my aging in-laws in Orlando. As my reward for behaving myself and not getting into any family feuds, I get to take a side trip to the ocean for a couple of days. This year we chose three days and two nights at Daytona Beach.

I would not identify the Spring Break capital of Florida as a spiritual mecca, but it served that purpose for me. I got to lie by the ocean for hours and listen to the sea. I have explained in an earlier blog about the ocean's role in my spiritual awakening. These trips are refresher courses. The Master of the wind and the waves speaks to my soul.

It is well known that the rhythms of the tides and the moon have an effect on the biological and emotional rhythms of human life. The ocean has a similar effect on my spiritual life. "Deep calls out to deep" to quote the Psalm.

I hear the surf crash on the shore, and it speaks to me of life and death. Each wave is a life that ends at the continent's edge. How long did that wave live? How far did it roll? All the way from Africa perhaps, or the middle of the Atlantic?

At the seashore I glimpse the beginning of creation. Genesis says that before there was light and the first day, there was the wind blowing over the face of the deep. The universe began with waves on primordial waters. That is where we all began. That is when I was born.

The apostle Paul said that God chose us before the foundation of the world. We had a beginning in God before the beginning of creation. That is our end as well. A wave begins its life far out at sea. It ends at the feet of toddlers enjoying a day at the beach. We start as a wave and return to the sea. Blessed be the Lord of the earth and the sea.
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Photographer Clark Little caught this wave just as it splashed back into the sea.

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