Perspective
Photo Source: The author
I stand in silence looking out on the Gulf of Mexico. No matter how many times I have stood in this exact same spot and looked out upon the rolling green waters, I never cease to be amazed at how vast it is - reaching infinately off into the distance. I remember making a joke as a high schooler standing in the water at Jekyll Island that England was just over the hill - that ridge on the horizon. I think about how vast this body of water is and it is just the Gulf, it is not the Atlantic Ocean. I gaze up and down the beach to my East and West and think about how many millions of grains of sand make up the beach. I cannot help but think of the hand that created this magnificant body of water and each individual grain of sand. I am amazed how peaceful it is, how everything else that has weighed on my mind over the last several months seems to melt away as I stand looking out on the rolling waves.
I suddenly feel very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I feel much like one of the grains of sand under my bare feet. From anyone elses' perspective, I am a tiny dot on the horizon. How much even smaller I must appear from the heavens. I am humbled and amazed that the maker of heaven and earth - who created all of this that I am taking in - wants a personal relationship with me and cares for me.
A sandpiper quietly walks past me unconcerned that I am near. I am reminded of a piece of scripture, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? " - Matthew 6:26
The storms of life bang against my shores, and I have to make decisions on how I will respond. The sandpiper stands with his back to the crashing waves not paying any attention to the water or how close the waves crash against the beach where he stands. I am reminded that worrying about things I cannot control is futile. I cannot trust in my own abilities but in the one who controls all things.
Photo Source: The author
You can browse my collection of beach photography at: allenmadding.smugmug.com.
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