Thoughts from 3/17/15

There are people who will die, never having seen the mountains, or the great oceans, or the hills and prairies of the Midwest, or the great skyscrapers of New York City. And there are people who will never understand how exhilarating it is to breathe in the cold air of a winter night and gaze up at the bright stars, and there are people who will never know the feeling of warm California sand between their toes, or understand the smell of a real Christmas tree and the warmth of a fire. Some people will never witness the magnificence of a sunrise or sunset, and some will never experience the quiet calm and peace of waking up early in the morning in the woods after a night spent in a tent. But there is a experience that every. single. person. who has ever lived has experienced: interaction with another person. Whether it was being alive in the womb, being held in someone's arms, talking with a stranger on the street, saying "thanks" to the cashier at the grocery store, making eye contact with the person 10 feet away in the library, laughing with people over corny jokes at 2 a.m., crying with someone, learning with a person... the list goes on forever. No one has ever NOT been around a person, even if that time was just at the beginning of their life. Everyone has had an experience and interaction with another human. God created so many magnificent things in the world, and we should appreciate and enjoy them because they bring glory to Him. But the thing that everyone in the human race shares is that we have all had contact with someone who is MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. The evidence of God's handiwork is right before my own eyes, and every day I get the opportunity to speak with people who were created by God and are loved by Him.

A Ballad of the Sea

I was looking through some poetry that I wrote last year, and I came across this one...

A Ballad of the Sea

The sea is an ocean of memories.

It begins when memories are left,

Forgotten somewhere on a sandy beach.

The broken-hearted lover comes

And leaves his broken dreams

Lying in the sand.

And old man walks in the sand;

He pauses, remembering the time

When he first set sail on the sea,

And when he fought in his first war.

He leaves pieces of memories

Scattered by the ocean.

A middle-aged woman

Lets the tears fall in the white sand,

And then leaves her past regrets there,

Where no one can find them.

And when the tide comes,

It gathers the memories left on the beach,

And sweeps them back into dark waters.

And that is why

The sea is an ocean of memories.

All those memories, stored in the depths,

Mean that, perhaps,

The ocean is the greatest secret-keeper of all.

~a.v.g.

1/17/15

I am overwhelmed by the thought that I, of all the sinners in the world, would ever be allowed to lay all of my heavy burdens, my sins, and all of my earthly cares at the foot of the cross where Christ died to forgive my sins, even the worst of them. He has forgiven me, He has taken all of my burdens and all of my cares, and He continues to show me perfect, everlasting love.