Many people are mesmerized by the sea. Wide waters capture imaginations. Waves, wind, and the edges of continents attract visitors, enthrall children, and are the focal point for shipping, commerce, and recreation. I grew up along inland waters and remember running in and out with the breaking waves on a small beach. Last week, decades after my first experience with the seas, I watched little children doing the same thing for the first time. There is something mighty and powerful about the sea. Since we live on land for the most part, we often lose touch with the fact that land mass is only a fraction of the earth’s surface. Somehow that comes into focus better when you set your face to the sea, struggle but cannot see the other side, and witness wave after wave crashing in front of you.
The created surface of earth was first nothing but sea, until God went further and formed the dry land. The Psalm reference in the sketch is a brief poetic reflection of God’s actions in Genesis. No, it did not happen by accident through some undirected process in deep time. So star dust to stars to galaxies to earths to what we see on this unique planet is a pure conjecture, demanding increasing complexity from particles to what we see on a beach. God is succinct: He made it. He formed it. The grand result is a place in finite time (also created) so we, through the ages, might have a chance to reach out to Him.
With the wind in my face and waves breaking in front of me, the orchard grass waved back and forth. That is what I captured in the brief sketch. Like us, the dune grass has a short life. Unlike the grass, we can think about how all this came to be, become acquainted with the Author of it all, and, like the Psalmist, recognize His hand in it all. Or, we meander forward thinking it all happened by itself. The love of God persists, providing opportunity after opportunity to choose about origins. This I say with confidence, and in agreement with the oldest, most reputable, spiritual, and fully accurate history book available to mankind: ‘the sea is His and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land’.
