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the other night we walked down to the beach with the camera. husbuddy just got a tripod and wanted to practice some landscape shots. i took some pictures too of course :) {i know, you’re all so excited that you’re going to be seeing a million photos of the ocean this year!! hee hee}

while i waited for him to take his thousand and one photographs i combed the beach for sea glass{as you can see, he did the same}. i am always fascinated by sea glass. it goes into the ocean ugly, hard, even dangerous with sharp edges that cut. then it comes out softened and beautiful. and we collect it. how funny is that? we’re collecting trash.

but the ocean has done something wonderful to the little glass pieces, make them smooth and worn and sparkly. it churns, it rages, it crashes the little piece of glass all around until it finally ends up on the beach… beautiful.

kind of like us. we start out in this world as selfish and ugly and a little rough around the edges. we may stay that way like a piece of glass left in the trash but when we give up control, that’s not where God leaves us. He wants our faith to grow. He has a plan for us. He wants to make us more holymore beautiful. sometimes that means being tossed and churned in the ocean.

“The strongest trees are found not in the thick shelter of the forest but out in the open, where winds from every direction bear down upon them. The fierce winds bend and twist them until they become giant in stature. These are the trees that toolmakers seek for handles for their tools, because of the wood’s great strength.

It is the same in the spiritual world. Remember when you see a person of great spiritual stature, the road you must travel to walk with him is not one where the sun always shines and wildflowers always bloom. Instead, the way is steep, rocky and narrow path where the winds of hell will try to knock you off your feet, and where sharp rocks will cut you, prickly throns will scratch your face, and poisonous snakes will slither and hiss all around you.

The path of faith is one of sorry and joy, suffering and healing comfort, tears and smiles, trials and victories, conflicts and triumphs, and also hardships, dangers, beatings persectuions, misunderstanding, trouble and distress. Yet, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom.8:37)”

-an excerpt by EA Kilbourne in Streams in the Desert

dear friends, may sea glass and strong trees give you hope today.

xo-kimberly renee