Some thoughts from my 4 mile beach run this morning.....
As humans, we constantly look for SIGNS to give us reassurance, direction, endorsement, etc. We deliberately ignore the ones we don't place too much value on or choose to expend the extra effort on at the time, but search for something "supernatural" or spectacular....so funny that there are so many metaphoric ones right in front of us.
Along the wet sand this morning I couldn't help but smile at all of the broken shells I came across....otherwise perfect formations, all similar but none identical to the other, but all marred by some imperfection caused by a tragic blow to its delicate form...some severely broken, and others only slightly chipped (perhaps having not had as many trips back into the ocean). How lucky for the ones that will be picked up today by collectors of shells, and taken home to be broken no more....
I was reminded of a small box containing just these kinds of shells that I gave a certain someone not long ago, making an analogy between the brokenness of our selves and that of the shells... but today as I think about the impending birth of the ONE that made ALL possible, including my life (broken as it may be) and the broken shells, the sea that spews them and then reclaims them, and everything else around me, those shells took on even more meaning.
SIGN? Certainly we can relate to the broken little shells, maybe those with a small chip, but most of us with those with more deep malformations.... and just like the ocean that graciously reclaims them off the shores, washes them with the healing salt water and sends them back, so we too are graciously loved, washed, and offered healing the power of which we aren't even capable of knowing...imagine how immense and powerful the ocean is to a little shell??
And what a gift to us that our broken shells can be picked up, dusted off and treasured in their brokenness....ALWAYS by HIM who brought us here, but occassionally if only for a SEASON, by the holder of his own broken shell.
Merry Christmas & a new year of healing....
As humans, we constantly look for SIGNS to give us reassurance, direction, endorsement, etc. We deliberately ignore the ones we don't place too much value on or choose to expend the extra effort on at the time, but search for something "supernatural" or spectacular....so funny that there are so many metaphoric ones right in front of us.
Along the wet sand this morning I couldn't help but smile at all of the broken shells I came across....otherwise perfect formations, all similar but none identical to the other, but all marred by some imperfection caused by a tragic blow to its delicate form...some severely broken, and others only slightly chipped (perhaps having not had as many trips back into the ocean). How lucky for the ones that will be picked up today by collectors of shells, and taken home to be broken no more....
I was reminded of a small box containing just these kinds of shells that I gave a certain someone not long ago, making an analogy between the brokenness of our selves and that of the shells... but today as I think about the impending birth of the ONE that made ALL possible, including my life (broken as it may be) and the broken shells, the sea that spews them and then reclaims them, and everything else around me, those shells took on even more meaning.
SIGN? Certainly we can relate to the broken little shells, maybe those with a small chip, but most of us with those with more deep malformations.... and just like the ocean that graciously reclaims them off the shores, washes them with the healing salt water and sends them back, so we too are graciously loved, washed, and offered healing the power of which we aren't even capable of knowing...imagine how immense and powerful the ocean is to a little shell??
And what a gift to us that our broken shells can be picked up, dusted off and treasured in their brokenness....ALWAYS by HIM who brought us here, but occassionally if only for a SEASON, by the holder of his own broken shell.
Merry Christmas & a new year of healing....
