Beach Walks

I love a good beach walk. I don’t know how many miles I’ve walked on the shores of beaches. I seem to gravitate to places where I can walk to beaches and hear the waves and smell the salty sea air. I grew up right next to the ocean so the shores and the tidal flats was my play ground. Depending on the season, one could hear all of the seagulls congregating on the beach flats and see bald eagles flying over and perching themselves in the trees on the shores. Humpback whales also take up their residence just off these same shores each summer to feed, breach and put on grand shows for us. My family and I have many fun memories of growing up in our little community, tucked right between the ocean and the mountains.

As my siblings and I got older, we’d visit at the parents house over a cup of coffee and we’d watch the tide come in and the tidal flats would be blanketed by the ocean. Then as the tide went out, the flats would magically appear again six hours later. We have a saying in our family that we’d spend our days off watching the tide come in and go out as we visited and drank coffee together.

The beaches and ocean were woven into our lifestyle and our daily living. My family has lived by and gathered foods from the ocean and beaches for countless years. It’s only natural, we have a love and passion for beaches, the ocean and coastal living.

The sand on the beaches and a few of my favorite verses help put into context how much God loves people. “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” (Psalm 139: 18) His word tells me that the good thoughts that He has outnumber the grains of sand on the shores of every beach in this world and I imagine on the whole planet in it’s entirety. That’s a lot of sand and that’s a lot of good thoughts. The more I study and unpack these verses, the more His love permeates my heart and mind. The Hebrew word for count is caphar (saw-far) meaning to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. to inscribe. Try to count and keep track of the ways His Word shows His love, calling and destiny for you. The more you read the Word, the more you learn He is for me and for you. Open His Word, read it and study it. Verse after verse spells out His heart, promises, love and good plans for you and for me.

Psalm 40:5 says, “Many O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.” His plans and good thoughts are for good. One little “Yes” to Him puts you into step with His plans. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

So take a moment to think about these few words I’ve shared. The next time you’re at the beach, try to imagine a total number of the grains of sand on that single beach alone and then try to think of God’s good thoughts and plans for you. You are loved. Deeply. You are known. Intimately. He has good plans for your life. Also it’s important to know, God doesn’t define good as we do. His plans for us are even better than we can think or imagine. I’m not saying life will always be easy if you say yes to Him. That is a fallacy and I could write story after story about that. But He is true to His word. He is always with us. He never leaves us. His mercies are new everyday and nothing can separate us from His love.