The Irony of it All

A few hours on the beach this morning and I am reminded why I love it so much.  It’s where I do my best thinking.  At least my most interesting thinking.  Granted, some small part of that might be the things I don’t have to think about this week while I’m sitting in the sand staring blankly across the Atlantic Ocean.  But it’s really more than that.

As I watched my two boys build a sand castle this morning, one equipped with large walls to protect it from incoming waves and a ditch that funneled the rushing water right trough an opening in those walls (I was the spectator, not the engineer), I was reminded just how much the beach stirs our imagination.  Especially in little boys.

I started thinking about the spiritual irony of it all.  That so much of the natural world defies explanation.  The waves and tides and vastness of the ocean.  The hurricanes and tsunamis.  That God would create this great big world and leave so much of it a mystery.  I know a lot of people would like God to reveal the answers to some of these mysteries, some who will never believe in God absent those answers.  But it’s the lack of these answers that are the foundation of our imaginations.  And what a cool gift.  I mean what if we knew everything there was to know about creation.  It’s possible that staring out into the ocean wouldn’t be awe inspiring at all. 

I got to thinking that in this life we’re promised few answers, and many days who could think of anything cooler.  That we can wonder and imagine like a child.  We believe we can build sand castles that will hold back an entire ocean – at least the parts of it we want to hold back.  Yet, when we leave this life, we are promised answers to all.  And that will be paradise.  I find that ironic.  Very orchestrated.  Very God-like.

Oh, how I love the beach.

Vacation Slide Show