Written in the Sands

I watch the ocean waves crash upon the sand.

                     I feel the granules shift between my toes.

                               I run a handful of the white, powdery sands through my fingers...

just trying to imagine with each one thoughts of love from above,

"You are precious."

"I died for you."

"You are worth it."

"I have great plans for you."

"I call you daughter, and Princess."

"You have a purpose."

After my handful returns to the mass of particles on the beach, I look around in awe.  Spread before me is an example of how much God thinks of me, how much He loves me - and the amount is unfathomable, unimaginable, innumerable!  Psalms :17-18 says,

"How precious [towards] me are your thoughts, O God!  How vast the sum of them!  Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." 

I see why the psalmist here has to use TWO exclamation marks.  This to me is one of the most profound statements of God's care for us in the Bible.  Think about it - if each grain of sand represents a thought God has about us, then that means He thinks of us each moment of infinity, because we cannot even count a handful of sand!  We know this right?   But I have to ask, do we really know??? We know He died for us, we know He loves us...but do we really know that He is consumed - passionately and unabashedly - with a love and attention to us.  HE DESIRES US.  Every moment of every day He thinks about us; He eagerly waits for the time when we finally spend time with Him.  In these times when we can finally begin hearing His whispering of those thoughts of love, "You are precious. You are worth it. I died for you.  I have great plans for you..."

Yet, I think so often I focus on the waves crashing upon these sands of love instead.   I look at the power that the waters, representing hardships, holds to wash away the sands.  I have this visual that God's love is written in one part of the mass, and when the ocean washes over the love, that it sweeps away God's care.  And, I can no longer feel Him speaking His thoughts to me;  I feel as if He's gone silent.  As if perhaps He isn't thinking of me.  I hear the roar of the ocean instead of the whispers coming from the granules. And I watch the waves pound over and over again, overtaking all feelings of security in God's love for me, and doubt settles in.  But then, I hear God telling me, "Krinda, Look at the sands!" 

I look....  

and all I see is that the writing of LOVE has been erased by the ocean of turmoil and mistakes. 
But God says again, "Krinda, LOOK AT THE SANDS." 
So, I pick up that handful again, I look at the sands there, and I hear God urging, "Look!  On each grain I've written my love!" 

No matter what, this life cannot take away God's love because when hardships seem to sweep away the thoughts God has for us, it's really an illusion.  The waves seem so powerful, yet they can never demolish the sands...they can never flood away God's love because regardless of the push and pull of the ocean, the sands still remain with the writing of God's love upon each granule. 

 "...the seas have lifted up their pounding waves. Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,      mightier than the breakers of the sea - the Lord on high is mighty."  Psalm 93:3,4

No matter how mighty your struggle seems to be; no matter how powerful your temptation or sin may appear, GOD IS GREATER!  Even when the words of God's love feel wiped away by the surge of pain, know that this reality remains - God's love can never, ever, ever be overpowered! Satan will try and pound out this love and make it disappear by forcing it under the water, pushing aside, or flinging it about, , but no matter what he does, God's love continues to be endless, infinite, innumerable.  For, even these seas must surrender to the mightiness and vastness of God eventually (Psalm 89:9), and nothing, I repeat nothing, can separate us from Him because even in the midst of the pounding waves what is underneath us, and swirling all around us is...SAND (i.e. LOVE).  We cannot escape it.  We cannot be separated it.  It rest under, along, and between the oceans of this world....

                               God's amazing love for you is written in the mere existence of the sands.

Next time you go to the beach, run your hand through the grains beneath your feet.  Lay upon the sand and just image, you rest upon an infinity of loving thoughts from God above; you are cushioned by soft whispers....

"You are precious."

"I died for you."

"You are worth it."

"I have great plans for you."

"I call you daughter, and Princess."

"You have a purpose."