We have been at sea for a week for a special celebration that merited special recognition and an extraordinary response with the closest of friends. As we begin these last decades of life and marriage, we are compelled to try new things: a cruise ship, the teas and spices of the West Indies, distant lands, Uber. What a joy it has been. And I have made a new friend with one of God’s creations on this trip. Let me tell you about her.
There is a certain harmonic, a visual resonance with the sea. I’ve observed that the undulations on the ocean’s surface are not aimless any more than the so-called randomness of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. God creates each distant white cap as surely as He generates the wave length He chooses to communicate with us. Are you focusing on the white capped wave He has created to communicate with you?
Do you doubt the fact that the oceans are so vast that even God himself cannot keep up with the life and apparent death of a wave and its crest? The seas are not dying and we cannot fathom the depths of His ability to bring a wave to life. There, at its crest, appears a mist, briefly refracted into a rainbow if but for just a moment, and then God chooses to re-create that wave in another form which is where waves go anyway.
Perhaps it is this visual—not aural—resonance that has lured sailors onto the crags and rocks of maritime peril. The siren song at sea is unmistakable if you’re looking for its source and not the Master’s hand which painted it in the first place. It is when you begin to trust the seat of your pants that you become complacent and your life can end up on the crags.
Yet, should you recognize God’s creation out here, you can make out His hand—this visual resonance. Scripture tells us He commands even the waves of the sea. You can’t explain it to someone else or capture it on camera. You must climb on board and experience it yourself—just like being led to faith by a friend.
There are people walking by on their cellphones, or gambling down in the casino, or checking the internet. Some are napping or chatting with others. The ship is first class and makes its way through the water effortlessly with an occasional toss or sway. You can get the impression that technology has advanced past the sea. As for my new friend, we are but a brief incursion into her world and she doesn’t much care.
The waves come and go in their resonant, visual harmonic. There is a natural contentment with my new friend, the sea.