Ocean in a Bottle

Read 

Matthew 14:22-35 and Psalm 104:25-26

When I was a kid, my mom had this ocean in a bottle. It was in a jug and there were two liquids in it that just wouldn't mix. One was blue, the other was clear, and no matter how much you moved, shook or jiggled that jug, you just had these mesmerizing waves chasing themselves around the bottle. It was beautiful and serene and I loved to watch the tiny ocean slosh from side to side. The whole thing was so lovely, yet bound up. Confined. Safe.

I live in Oregon. From my little valley, it's just a jaunt over a mountain range to the Pacific Ocean. The Oregon coast (if you're from here, you know better than to call it the beach) is known for cold, grey, stormy seas crashing up against stony cliffs. There's not a lot of sandy land on which to build your house on the Oregon coast, but you learn to be wary of what looks like solid rock here too. It's all subject to the battering waves. Here, the ocean is unbound. Vast and Dangerous.

Sometimes, I like to stuff what I know about God into a bottle to watch and marvel at from a safe distance. Like eleven twelfths of the disciples, I'm happy to appreciate him from the safety of the boat. Wow, Jesus. That's really awesome that you can walk on water! You can do anything can't you? That's just wonderful. Praise! Now I'll just wait until you saunter over here to the boat and I'll tell you how much I love you.

But that's not what Jesus wants from me. He wants me to be out there with him, like Peter. He wants me to be so moved by His greatness that I'm ready to step out into the waves.  

But am I ready? Because it's not safe out there. There's wind and waves and I'm prone to seasickness.

It's a choice we all have to face at some point on our journey as daughters of Christ.

I've stepped into the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii. It wasn't so bad. It was tranquil, warm and serene. It's not scary to think about stepping into that ocean. But that's the same ocean, the same vast bunch of salt water that hurls itself against the rocks along the Oregon coast. I've stepped into the water there too. It's cold. Toe numbing cold. It's fierce. Kids in Oregon learn to never turn their back on the ocean because the sneaker waves will get you. It's dangerous. Same ocean.

But it is beautiful. Take your breath away gorgeous in the stormy season and on the 3 days a year when the sun comes out and it's not too windy to stand up. There's something compelling about it's vastness and power. Knowing that here the waves crash, but miles away, they lap the shore. Knowing that life teems under the whitecaps and grey-blue surface. Knowing all of this, are we really content with the God we can watch in a bottle via second, third and fourth hand experience?

Or like Peter are we so overcome with this awesome power that we need to jump in and live it ourselves.

Snowflakes

Please Read Psalm 103

"...for He knows how we are formed. He knows we are dust." 

Psalm 103:14

It all started with dust there in the garden. First there was nothing, then from nothing, land and sea and sky and and stars and plants and animals and dust. There on the ground of the garden. Dust that the Creator would turn into a man. Dust that the Creator would form into his own image and animate with his own breath. 

"...for He knows how we are formed. He knows we are dust."

God knows where we came from, and we do too. Self help books wouldn't sell so well if some part of us didn't remember where we came from. We are insignificant. We fall short. We, created in His image, fail. So we pray:

"Have mercy on me, O God

according to your unfailing love...

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." 

From Psalm 51

We know that when we confess, He forgives.  

But we still remember where we came from. Dust. We remember the dust; we forget the Creator restores. That He makes beautiful.

They say every snowflake is different. Then you watch a few youtube videos and discover that they don't all say that. But every snowflake has one thing in common. Dust. 

Water crystallizes into ice around a tiny particle of dust. It makes lines and prisms and mirrors it's maker. The six sides of a snowflake copy the pattern of the molecule of water surrounding the dust. Changes in temperature, wind and altitude influence the growth of this tiny crystal as it drifts earthward. It's safe to say that even though all snowflakes go through the same process, they are all effected a little different. But they all settle to the ground white. We don't look out the window after a snowfall and say, "look at that pile of freshly fallen dust!" No. We see fresh, white snow. 

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us."

Psalm 103:11