THE  OCEAN

 

I remember, as if it were yesterday, the first time I saw it.  Standing on it's shore, I was speechless. I immediately became transfixed by the swaying and repetitious churning of the mammoth creature. It all seemed new yet familiar. At last, I was seeing with my eyes what I had seen with my heart and mind since childhood, THE OCEAN.

 

The second time I visited "her"  was as dramatic as the first but the events in my life...deaths and illnesses...had changed me. While once I was cheerful and optimistic, now I was melancholy and morose. BUT, the ocean was the same. It still undulated endlessly with the tides and the shore remained cluttered with shells. As I stood there staring at that bright mirror reflecting the blue sky, I saw not only the blue-green waters but  also the ability of God to control the activity of the sea. I was filled with renewed hope. Melancholy gave way to joy.

 

I have returned to the ocean many times and I always feel as if I had never left. I take the sights and sounds with me and keep them in the uncluttered corners of my mind, bringing them out when I feel lonely, overwhelmed, sad or when I just need to feel a closer connection to God.

 

Who can explain the impact certain sights and sounds have on us? Scientists have tried and failed. Surely the ability to feel emotions through the stimuli  of our senses is a miraculous gift from the God of the ocean, the God of mankind, a gift not intended to be explained by science but rather to be accepted by faith. This gift is so powerful it can make a mother's life-giving milk begin to flow to her child, invoke empathy for those who are suffering and bring a miraculous sense of oneness with God just by seeing and hearing His awesome creation.... THE OCEAN!

Lynne Cross