Tonight the ocean reminded me of fear. It even made me feel a little fearful. It was dark and the waves were strange—restless, crashing, strong, sudden. There was an unrest to the ocean that was a bit un-nerving.
It also reminded me of hope. Several times tonight the ocean came shooting up onto the shore unexpectedly resulting in far more wetness than I had originally intended. This reminds me of hope because I think of God reaching out to sinners…people standing on the edges who are scared to get their feet wet, or to people who are standing in the water but are torn between full commitment and enjoying the pleasures of sin.
There was a beauty in the fear. The ocean seemed frustrated, desperate and restless. This coupled with the darkness and knowledge of the power and magnitude of the ocean's waters was enough to spark a bit of fear in my heart.
But I thought of the fear a sinner has when he comes to the realization that he resisting God. There is a fear—a good fear—that comes when you realize how powerful and holy and pure and good God is and how dirty and selfish and ugly you are. There is fear on two parts. One: because you know that you don't deserve to live in the presence of One so amazing and God could kill you at any time. Two: because you know that if you choose to live in the presence of this Awesome God, you will have to give up everything that is comfortable and familiar to you. You will become a citizen of Heaven rather than a citizen of earth, and the things of earth must grow strangely dim if He is to take His proper place. That is no small thing with which to come to grips.
The restlessness of the ocean reminded me of how God is constantly reaching out to us out of His love, even though He is constantly rejected by men. If you think about it as a person, when you reach out to someone, you like to see them accept whatever you are doing for them. You don't like to be rejected. I have never met God, but I sense that sometimes He must feel like we do when someone won't take something that we've gotten for them. Especially when we've paid for it with our most prized possession.
I don't know, but I sense that God must feel a bit of restless desperation at times as people walk on and on rejecting Him. Perhaps He longs to reach out past the limits under which He has placed Himself that keep Him from forcing men to serve Him.
Fear of commitment, God's longing to know us, hope, restless energy—it was an interesting night at the ocean.
