Blog Post in a Bottle.

Oceanside, I sit indulging in a Jhumpa Lahiri novel as green waves threaten to engulf me, multicolored paperback and all. My copy of The Namesake is water-damaged and worn, even more so now that it has journeyed to the beach with me. I imagine its pages were once crisp and clean, begging for attention; but that was another time, long before I discovered it sitting lonesome and abandoned on a Goodwill shelf. Something beyond the words on these dusty pages speaks to me: the bent corners and sentences underlined in navy ink, allowing me to peek into the eyes of this book's previous owner, someone whom I long to know more about. I begin to wonder, which of the countless fictional characters does she find most relatable? Whose perspective interests her most, mother or son? Does she know of a love that lasts, unlike the tales told in these 291 entrancing pages? Or does she still wander aimlessly through life, searching for a stream that won't run dry in the desert of her reality?

The looming mystery of the ocean provokes me to ask myself these seemingly far-fetched and unanswerable questions. Perhaps simply knowing that the ocean connects mankind stirs my soul to inquire about the people I have yet to meet, and all of the people I may never know who live across the roaring waters. What I do know is there is a world full of people who have yet to grasp the ocean depths of God's grace and endless widths of His love. Still yet, the seashore sings of Eden and I long to be a local resident of her infallible beauty. Conversely, it's enough to live on this side of reconciliation with God - to witness glimpses of His perfection and experience the Lord's unrelenting zeal for His children every single day. Our Creator does not expect us to return to Him with perfectly pressed pages and no scratches to our name. Instead, He desires to reclaim our stories, taking us just as we are and turning the ashes of our burnt and ink-stained pages into a beauty only His hands can craft.

I wish I could put a teeny-tiny messenger in a bottle and set him to sail, equipped with an overflowing cup, a loaf of life and these lessons of Christ I have learned on the shore and beyond. What a world that would be - but that is not our world, and there are no people microscopic enough to embark on this fantasy sized task. However, there are plenty of us Christians with an average build, and may I add incredibly unique life experiences, to begin gathering seashells for the kingdom, one intentional walk on the beach at a time. In translation, the harvest is most plentiful, so may we have a wonderful opportunity to love others to Jesus one honest word and humble deed at a time. 

This post is short and semi-sweet, and the thoughts within a bit scattered, but I could not pass up this opportunity to share a reminder of how the ocean's depths mirror the graces of our good Father. Nor could I resist acknowledging the endless island widths of His love, or the reflection of His uniqueness and design perfection expressed individually in each of us. So tell me, what about the beach parallels the Gospel in your eyes? I would love to hear the ways in which the healing salt and water of life have influenced your life's story, even the bits that are broken and bent. May we share the words of our lives as healing salt and light to others, leading them to the ocean of grace that will never run dry.