Life is Good at The Beach
For nearly a week my wife and I went to the beach (come on, like I wasn’t going to talk about going to the beach?). It was, to put it mildly, relaxing and refreshing. We spent a lot of time there sitting, walking, reading, swimming, and soaking up the sun. I don’t know of a better place on Earth.
In and of itself, however, the beach, isn’t amazing. I mean, it’s just sand. While sand can be nice, it also has its issues. Sand gets everywhere you don’t want it to. It’s hard to walk in and it gets hotter than a blacktop parking lot. That’s why people don’t generally say “I’m going to the middle of the desert for vacation!”
Its what’s at the beach that makes the beach so much better. The sun, the water, the waves coming in, the book you bring, the people you are with. The long walks along the shore collecting stones and beach glass while the sun sets.
Strangely enough the bible doesn’t say much about the beach (vacation wasn’t big then). Paul and his fellow travelers were relieved to reach one after being in a storm at sea. But a few times the beach, or shore had something special about it, but like today it was what was there that made it special.
In Matthew 13 crowds of people went to the beach but they went there for what was at the beach. Jesus had gone there to have a place to teach them. And He stood in a boat while they were on the beach soaking up some Son.
In John 21 after long hard hours working, 7 of the Apostles went to the shore and they were excited to get there. Not because of the sand, not even because of the breakfast cooking on a nice little campfire, but because of who was there. They knew it was Jesus and they wanted to be “fed”.
I absolutely love going to the beach because to me it is incredibly relaxing. I can feel the stress of life melting away. My shoulders relax and I just get happy. But when you leave, the stress of life is still waiting. There’s a better place for our stress. 1 Peter 5:6-7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.