Stuff That Matters In Life

Today was a dry run of what it will be like in 6 years, when all 3 of my children will be over 18.

Mike and I had the day to ourselves, just the 2 of us, while our kids are at various retreats with church and school.

We had the Saturday wide open. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm with a little breeze at 70 degree – in mid-“winter” – you can’t beat that!

My first choice of destination is always the beach.

I haven’t been to the Santa Monica Pier since it was remodeled many years ago, so we headed out that way. We surprisingly found free parking for 3 hours at the Santa Monica mall parking structure.

The walk around the Promenade and the pier was relaxing. I like crowds. I like watching artists draw people’s portraits and “write your name on a grain of sand.” I like the music sung by 2 boys, with a box for collection trying to make a few bucks. (Actually, they probably made several hundred bucks, looking at the almost-full box of one’s and five’s.)

What I love best is the ocean.

As I gaze towards the horizon at a distance and feel the rhythm of the waves, I am once again reminded of the creative powers of our Creator. The ocean is so intimidating, so vast. No one can tame it, no one can control it, no one knows all the mysteries within its depths. Yet to God it is probably a drop in the bucket of all his creations.

The feeling of being so small compared to the unfathomable power of God might be thought to give one an inferior complex. Yet to know that such a great God drew himself to me in the person of Jesus Christ, that such a great God wrote a Book for me so I can know him personally, that such a great God promises to seat me with him at his right hand in heaven – I am the luckiest of all of his creations. I don’t feel inferior at all. God makes me feel loved and exalted as his child.

Can you really hear God talk to you? You bet. He talked to me a lot that day at Santa Monica pier.