Picking up Seashells

I’m blessed to live quite near the coast and enjoy walking on the beach with my husband, often picking up seashells as we go. It still amazes me that every single shell is different, unique like every blade of grass, every leaf, every flower petal and every snowflake. What mind blowing evidence of the unending imagination of our creator God!

When you look at the detail in just one seashell – the symmetry of its fanned ridges and furrows, the pure chalky whiteness of one or the pretty marbled pattern and shading of another - and you feel the rough exterior, once protection for a little sea creature, it makes you wonder why God made it so beautiful. Was it important to the creature? Or did He make all the intricate beauty of a seashell so that one day we would pick it up, look at it and say, ‘Wow! You’re an amazing God!’

Then turning it over and feeling the smooth softness of the interior, the shiny, pearly lining, you can only marvel at what a perfect place of comfort and safety for its inhabitant it once was. And if God cares that much and goes to such lengths for a tiny sea creature, how much more does He care for us, His own dear children adopted through the shed blood of Jesus?

I am reminded of the safest, safest place He has for you and for me – not the hard shell that we can be so good at creating for ourselves – our safe place is in His loving arms, in the embrace of our loving Father God, who is our refuge and strong tower.

Walking on the beach is a carefree activity, but the little sea creatures that once lived in the shells, would have experienced times of being tossed about in very stormy seas. Yet they were held and protected in the safe place their creator made for them.

If you are walking through a difficult time, perhaps facing one the storms of life, remember there is a place of safety and calm right now in the midst of the turmoil, in the eye that storm, where you can find precious comfort and true peace that cannot be found any other way. If you run into the shelter of the Most High, your Strong Tower, your Fortress, He will hold you and keep you safe. ‘He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings you will find refuge’ in knowing the most important truth in the whole world that transcends everything else, that you are loved by Him.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for all the incredible lengths You went to in Your creation of the world, to show us in so many ways how much You love and care and provide for us for every eventuality of life. Please help me not to try and brace myself to face the storms in my life, but to admit my human frailty and to run to You when I am troubled, to enter into that place You have for me, held safe in the everlasting arms, where I can find comfort, true peace and safety, knowing the most important truth in the whole world that transcends everything else, that I am loved by You. Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.