If I Could Save 'Sand' In A Bottle...

The ocean for me holds a special bond. I cannot really explain it... but I feel it in my soul. When I stand at the shoreline and gaze far out into the horizon... I feel the universe is connected. I feel God's power... and his grace... his intensity... his softness... his beauty... his creativity. I just feel God all around me. When he created the oceans and the beaches he truly put his heart and soul into it. The jagged cliffs that reach up toward heaven... set softly down on a blanket of sand. The waves that billow out of the depths that reach the entire length of the shoreline come quietly at times to brush against the shore. Sometimes a rage of boiling water gnashes its teeth along the cliffs and sandy beaches completely gnawing and eating away at its boundaries. The beauty of God's masterpiece comes at sunrise and sunset. The morning sky is a softly brushed canvas with gentle pastel shades of lavendar and pink and a soft peachy color that sneaks up over the sleepy grey sky of night time. The evening sky is lavashed with brilliant streaks of orange and irridescent pink and sometimes a deep red and purple... add a few string-like clouds and it glows in layers spanning as far as the eye can see. At times... on a stormy day... there are thousands of shades of blacks and greys and whites... like a charcoal and pencil sketch with depths as deep as the ocean itself.

Many times I have asked God... "Why God? Why am I worth something to you? Who am I?" God answered me. In my heart I heard him say... Look how many grains of sand there are on the entire earth. I know how many grains there are... and I know where I have put each special one. I know where the waves of the ocean take them. I gave them to you to remind you how much you mean to me. If I took so much care to make them... then I truly love you.

Have you ever stood on the shore... with the waves lapping at your feet... and tried to count just one finger full of sand? God is so awesome! He gave us natures beauty. All of the true treasures of the ocean lay deep within. They are not gold or silver... but life and color and beauty into depths that are beyond our imagination. He painted this earth for us. There are so many colors I don't even think we can hit the tip of the iceburg trying to define all of them! His beauty and love is all around us. It is in everything we do... and everything we see around us.

I love the ocean... and everything that goes with it. I collect lighthouses and seashells and "stuff". I have taken up a new collection of collecting sand from different places. I go to a second hand store and find an inexpensive antique bottle to put each one in. It is so amazing to look at all of the differences in each bit of sand. Some have large rocks... some have broken shells... some are finer than the finest sugar. They all have different colors and textures. It is amazing how much work God put into just dirt! The differences are just as equal to the differences he made in each of us. My collection... I am hoping... will turn into sand and dirt... from all over the world! I want to see all that God has given us... see the land he created. I have not traveled far... but I send my friends who go on vacation with little ziplock baggies!

I am in awe of God and all of his wonders. I truly bow to him and his power and again... his softness and his creativity. We are created in HIS image! He must truly love us!

Genesis 1
The Beginning 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.