Blast from the Past

 

I stood, staring out at the beautiful blue Pacific, stretching and healing in the hot summer sun. Behind me, a young couple whispered and laughed, enjoying the vibrancy of youth and companionship. It added texture to my experience; the beauty of God’s creation, the beauty of relationship and love.

All of a sudden, I was startled by a ragged line of pelicans swooping west to their nesting places out on the peninsula. Looking like some sort of throw-back to the dinosaur era, they moved in silence and speed, soaring and swooping, not fishing but heading home.

This was once land on which native Americans made their home. Before that, maybe others. I stood still, feeling like I stood still for awhile, but on reflection, recognising that my presence there was but a blink in the history of this place.

A thousand years in your eyes, God, are like a day gone by.

My life is but a flash in the sweep of history, and yet every second of my life has possibility, has meaning, has life.

Small adjustments can result in significant outcomes. Little tweaks to the steering wheel in driving a car result in crashes or clear driving. Little movements to the rudder or the sails of a yacht can have major outcomes to destinations or disasters.

May the nanosecond of my own prayers today help alter the tragic trajectories of the nations. May I have faith and confidence to believe that God himself hears the cries of my little heart, and answers.

Those pelicans. Swooping along the coast as they have for centuries, for eons perhaps. Seen by people I can only imagine.

Designed and orchestrated by the God who is pure love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son Jesus so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So grateful that Mom is now blessed in that eternal presence.