I’m a beach bum. I could spend the rest of my days wandering the beaches of this world barefoot, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. I find the sea intoxicating, along with all its bays, inlets and coastal waterways. I am not alone, millions of us flock to the coast whenever we can.
The ocean is immense and mysterious, that’s why we love it. Its shear volume is staggering. If you used all that water to cover the United States; and were somehow able to contain it there. You would have created a continent-sized lake that would be ninety miles deep. In the ocean you could be ten thousand feet deep and still be walking on the tops of high mountains. There are valleys deeper than the Grand Canyon on the bottom of the sea. There are giant undersea waterfalls that are thousands of feet tall.
We know all this, but what I find remarkable is what we do not know. There are countless undiscovered life forms in the deep. Not long ago they found almost three hundred new species on a single volcanic rock column in the ocean. What else must be lurking in the depths? We have rough sonar images of much of it, but we have only explored five percent of the ocean floor. Most of our own world is as much a mystery to us as deep space. We have far more detailed maps of the surface of Venus than of our own seas. More humans have been to the moon than to the Mariana trench in the Pacific. We may be technologically advanced, yet after thousands of years here we are, still surrounded by a vast watery mystery.
The ocean is dangerous. I live in a region of the country called the Mid-Atlantic. Our favorite retreat is the Outer Banks of North Carolina; known for its beautiful beaches, great sport-fishing and peaceful family vacations. But it is also called “the graveyard of the Atlantic”, due to the high number of shipwrecks there. the North Atlantic is stormy. Most of the houses on the outer banks are built on stilts; an attempt to keep them above the angry inrushing sea. As you drive to the coast you will notice many signs on the major roads stating, “Evacuation Route”. The ocean may be beautiful and vast and mysterious, but it is not safe. It is not tame. If it were, it would be boring. It has devoured cities and washed away millions of lives around the world. It is unpredictable, frightening and relentless. There is no fighting it or stopping it. There is only evacuation. Run away.
The ocean is a menace. But what if we could somehow befriend it; make peace with it. Get a promise from it that it would not harm us. What if it let us in to discover its secrets? To wander the hidden chambers of the deep. Would we go?
What if it gave us permission to walk upon its floor; with miles of water above our heads, without being crushed to death, or drowning. Would we go?
What if it gave us light in its depths, so we could see its secret glories, and it could reveal its wonders to us as we run through peaceful valleys, teeming with life. Would we go?
What if it let us climb mountains together; mountains that no man has ever touched; mountains bigger than any other on earth. Would we go?
What if the ocean allowed us to befriend all its creatures, and let us ride the back of peaceful monsters, and let us pick from coral flower beds, and let us walk its wide boulevards and explore the grand cathedrals of this great kingdom of the deep? Would we go?
The ocean intoxicates me, but I do not worship it. It is not God. It is beautiful and mysterious and dangerous; so is God, only far more so. We tend to want all our questions about God answered before we will trust in him. Do we really expect such a person to be less mysterious than the ocean he has created? He is more dangerous than the sea. He walks upon the sea. We will never tame him or make him conform to our wishes. He cannot be controlled, or bribed, or pacified, like the pagan gods of old. There is no protection from him, no matter how high your stilts are.
And yet, he is far more generous than the ocean. He truly does invite us in; to explore the wonders of his Person. He offers to protect us from the crushing weight of his glory; and, for us to even share in that glory. It is possible, given enough time, that we may search out all the mysteries of the ocean. But there is no end to God. To get to know HIM, we would need to live forever. That is why he offers us eternal life.
We may not know it, but God’s beauty is what we all desire. If He were truly inviting us in to search out the depths of that beauty; would we go?
And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” Mark 4:41