There are few things in the world I love more than walking on the beach at Frisco, North Carolina.
Very few things.
I know God is everywhere, all of the time. It just seems like there, on that beach, in that space, the veil is a little bit thinner. It’s like God’s and my special place. I can’t explain it to you unless you’ve experienced it for yourself… that one place where it just feels like you can close your eyes and feel God breathe.
Every single time I walk there, my spirit gets quiet and God says something. Every time.
Our trips to the beach have landed us in Avon the past few years, but not too long ago, I felt “my” beach calling when we were on the island. So I dragged my much loved friend and made her take the twenty-minute drive up the island to see my place and how it was faring.
She walked one way, and I walked the other. All I did was glory in being in my happy, God place. I hadn’t walked far when I happened to look down, and saw this etched in the sand…
Two trees. Do you see them? Trust me, in person, they were so much more amazing and three-dimensional than my trusty iPhone camera makes them look. Along the beach, there were no more, just these two, left behind by the receding tide. As much as God and I have talked on this particular stretch of beach, and with this being my first real walk there in several years, and with me being the only person standing in that spot, I had to feel like God left them there, drew them with His finger for me to find. See, we have a history there. He likes to tell me things there. Maybe because I’m more apt to listen.
And all I could think was Revelations 22: 1-5:
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. (NKJV)
I’ve been in a muddle lately, watching the news, seeing the world lose its mind. I wonder sometimes what’s going to happen next and how long we’ve got. And every time I go to the Outer Banks, I stand on the beach and wonder if it’s the last time. I’m not morbid, I’m not dwelling on it, I just wonder fleetingly, as I tell my happy place “see you later,” if this is the last later.
God’s told me a lot on that stretch of beach, but I think the most important thing is this: He knows the end from the beginning. He is always close by. He is never going to leave me alone.
He will always be God.
And I need to always be drinking Him in.
-JB