Sitting at the Water's Edge
When we think of a summer vacation, most people think of the beach.
Packing up the family, loading up the car with food, water rafts, shovels and buckets as everyone is so excited for hours of fun in the sun.
Every time we go to the beach, as I’m sitting in my beach chair at the water’s edge, I have this overwhelming realization: “This is the end of North America. Right where this land (beach) ends, is the edge of an entire continent.”
I’m pretty certain not everyone is thinking the same thing on their summer vacation at the beach, but I am!
The vastness of the handiwork of our Creator overwhelms me, especially when I experience firsthand the beauty and wonder of His creations.
The oceans ending at the edge of a beach, of an entire land mass.
The enormity of a body of water just stopping at the exact place that its Creator destined for it to stop.
As I sit on the beach, and these thoughts go through my mind EVERY SINGLE TIME I’m there, some very awe-inspiring verses in the book of Job flood over my heart and mind.
(Context: Job was a man who lost everything in his life, as God gave Satan permission to take it all away from him, except his life. The majority of the book of Job is a conversation between Job and God, Job and his friends, and then chapter 38-41 gives us an account of God’s conversation back to Job)
The following verses are questions God is asking of Job:
“Who shut up the sea behind doors? When I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I set limits for it (the sea) and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt.’” ~ Job 38: 8-11 (NIV)
As Job questioned God about His whereabouts during the most tragic, desperate time in His life, this was God’s response. The entire chapters of 38-41 are God’s continued response by asking Job similar questions.
In essence, God was saying: “Job, if I can tell the sea/ocean where to begin and where to end, can I not handle everything in your life? If I can stop the ocean from overtaking the land, can I not intervene in the problems you are bringing to Me?”
God was purposefully asking Job these questions to give Job the correct perspective of how great and mighty He is and how small and insignificant our perspective can be when we focus only on ourselves and our problems.
God was telling Job: “Job! I’VE GOT YOU! If seas and oceans obey my voice, then most certainly I can handle whatever worries, problems, or fears you may have!”
The Maker of heaven and earth can handle whatever you bring to Him!
Often times, instead of God changing our situations, He will change our perspective.
Instead of God removing our problems, He will remove the blinders off of our eyes to see that His handiwork is greater than whatever problem we may be facing that day.
Rather than allowing us to wallow in self-pity of what life has handed us, He asks us to see the Hand that has created heaven and earth and everything that is in it. The same Hand that is working and moving in our very situations, in ways we cannot see.
As foolish as it would be for us to sit at the water's edge and worry if the ocean is going to flow out of its shores and overtake us, it is as foolish as our wasting our time in worry, doubt or fear that our problems will overtake our lives as well.
One perspective check can change everything!
That’s all that Job needed: just a change of his perspective, a change of how he was seeing things.
And most often in our lives, that’s all we need as well.
Just to see things differently. To see the vastness of who God is and what He is capable of. To measure our problems against the greatness of our God.
So, if you find yourself sitting at the water’s edge, either literally or figuratively, remember Who created that body of water, Who tells it how far it can come, where to start and where to halt. That same Creator has the same power and authority to work on your behalf in your situation, in your desperation, and in your most dire moments.
He'll never allow the ocean to overtake you, nor will He allow this life’s worries and concerns to overtake you.
What a Great God!