Late night walks and lots and lots of sand

Today was a great day....it was the warmest day we've had in 6 months! After a long and hard winter we reached just over 60 degrees! That means one thing....late night walks to the beach!

For a little background on this I should mention that for the last few years now I've noticed God tends to speak to me on our walks to the water...especially at night. I can't tell you the number of times I've been out at night sitting in the sand next to lake Superior and spilling my heart and listening for His voice. Interestingly enough He tends to use analogies with me there and uses them to recalibrate my perspectives to His.

Tonight's conversation included lots of my thankfulness for such a beautiful night....but He did point out something really interesting as I was taking in the sounds and smells of the shoreline. As a matter of fact I was breathing though my nose as much as I could just to take in as much of the beach sent as I could get! As you can imagine the first trip of the year to the beach is one heck of a good smell. And as I simultaneously listened to the ginormous flock of seagulls out on the small rock island just off shore squawking obnoxiously He brought to my attention the fact that these two things are very strange things to love on their own. I mean....beach smell is made up of dead and rotting decay matter in the water...mixed with seagull poop and dirt/sand - among other things I'm sure.....but it's a beautiful smell! Everyone loves the smell of the beach! On top of that, flocks of squawking seagulls - on their own, is just obnoxious noise....but we EXPECT to hear that....it wouldn't really be the beach with out that noise. It also happens to bring up memories of my first summer in Marquette when I'd fall asleep to the squawking (from about a half mile away) each night with the cool night breeze blowing into my open bedroom window. God so perfectly took two very ugly and dirty things and turned them around on us (without us realizing) and made them desirable. And not just desirable....He made them beautiful. He actually made them two of the most beachy things about the beach!

How much more so does He take our ugliness....our imperfection.....our weakness.....our struggles....our uncleanliness.....and make them beautiful to Him. Does He not desire for us to look at each other through His eyes? His eyes that see all our shortcomings.....and considers it all beautiful. He knows all the grains of sand in all the beaches in the world, and all the deserts, and all the mountain tops, and underneath every house, and under every plant....everywhere. How much more so does He know the desires of our hearts? Are we not more precious to Him than all the grains of sand in this world - of which, he knows intimately?