The Ocean

As I sat on the seashore, admiring the sunrise, my hand made its way to my heart.

            "I am old," I whispered.  My heart pumped gently beneath my hand, and my blood lazily ran through my veins.

            My attention once again returned to the ocean, its smooth, glassy waves, and the long serene horizon.  On the infinite stretch of water, the sun was climbing, eager for the new day that was commanded by God Almighty.  With its golden power it lit the edge of obscurity ablaze with dazzling gold.  Ah, I couldn't help but smiling as the dark, brooding waters were progressively transformed into dancing golden expanses. The cool gray sand pulled me down a bit, and I felt close to the earth, yet far away.

            "What a privilege," I thought as the cool morning waves lapped around my ankles. The sun's warm rays crept up my toes and to my head.  My thoughts turn to the ocean again.  Mysterious as it was, and is, I felt that I knew it.  All of the chords sung and sinews strung between my heart and it were a divine analogy.  The simple shallows, which I swam in as a boy, were only a drop in the  unending seas of the earth. The Ocean in all of its fury and power had never harmed me, except to draw me back from the land.  In jealous and righteous anger it would batter the rocks and caves that men love to hide in and behind.  For the Ocean knew, and I knew, that I belonged to Him, and the Ocean gave itself to me. From it, came my sustenance and the salt that cleansed and preserved my flesh.  The same salt also irritated my dull eyes, and vain body.  From it, came my greatest satisfaction, desire, and joy.  With the Ocean I communed day and night.  By day I swam into its open depths, but I always had a rope tied to the shore.  Whether it was real or not, I can't say, but I always returned to the shore.  There, I would lie as the rising tide washed around and over me, and swept away the dirt that I was.  Perhaps, those times were enjoyable, but being in the Ocean is an experience unlike any other.  No control, yielded to the sway of the mighty Current, with no land to stand on.

            Most men are too cowardly, and prideful to surrender their feet.  They would rather be anchored to the vanity of the land.  At least when they have sovereignty over their feet they maintain an illusion of control.  I was once of the same breed, but once I tasted the purity of the ocean, I forgot about the land.  

            "Today is the day," I thought.  Yes that day was the day.  The ocean made its final plea to me as it washed up and around my body.  I stood and walked into the water.  The rapturous roar of the Ocean caught me into the green waves. Oh! The joy of my heart is, and was, to be drowned in that Ocean!  To breath it in and never again go another day without drinking from its cleansing fountains.

            I was drawn into it, and eventually I sank, deeper and deeper.  They say that the deepest depths of the Ocean are black, but they are wrong.  They are blindingly bright.  The Sun lives in the Ocean, and when it is not day it resides within the Ocean and shows me the way.  One day, soon, the Ocean and I will return to the land, and draw all willing men into the foam and currents.  Until then, though, I breathe in the Ocean, and the salt no longer burns my eyes, but I am always thirsty.  The great reward of the Ocean is thirst.  Always satisfied, but ever burning.  Thank Jesus I am thirsty.  I would have it no other way.