| God's Sea Shells |
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My name is Connie, and I am a shell-aholic.
My children and I spent the morning at the beach. We love the beach, and I love sea shells. I am realizing that it's addictive. We spent a couple of hours wading in the surf and gathering sea shells. Today, there was a yellow flag and a purple flag (for jelly fish). Each of us got a sting or two from a jelly fish tentacle, but it wasn't enough to keep Hannah and me from gathering shells. Jonathan was the jelly fish look-out person. He'd yell when he'd see a jelly fish, and we'd run out of the water. We would insist that we weren't going back, but not five minutes later, there we were gathering those sea shells. We'd practically risk our lives for "that perfect sea shell". We were right where the waves were crashing on the shore, but we'd get on our knees trying to find it, getting knocked over constantly. But we wouldn't give up. We'd get a jelly fish sting, get out and rest for a little while - insisting that we weren't going to do it again, and just a few minutes later, we were braving the waves and jelly fish to get those sea shells. Timothy was the only sane one -- he wouldn't get in the water. He just made sand castles and picked up shells that washed up on the beach.
Two different thoughts came to my mind as we were doing this. I thought about how persistent I was to get those shells. Even though I'd get knocked over by waves and stung by jelly fish, I didn't give up. I still wanted those shells. That's the way it has to be with our spiritual journey. There are going to be jelly fish that sting us -- waves that knock us down, but we have to keep seeking that relationship with the Lord. We can't just give up because we get knocked down. We have to just brush the sea weed out of our hair and reach for Him again. Of course unlike reaching for my sea shells and missing, we'll never miss when we reach out for Him. We can always grab Him. All we have to do is reach.
I also thought how God is that persistent with us. We are that special shell to him. Each one of us is unique and beautiful to him. He wants us all. The waves crash and we may drift here and there, but God doesn't quit trying to reach us. He wants us as his very own. |
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