This past summer I had the privilege of spending four days with just my daughter exploring the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We had taken her boys for a week of camp at Lake Anne Camp, as my son, Nathaniel, was co-preaching with Ken Rudolph that week. While they were at camp, my daughter and I took off without an agenda. We did plan ahead for hotels, but then we basically asked the locals what we needed to see. We enjoyed eating cherries (Moomer's cherry ice cream was the best – straight from the cow), sailing through the locks at St. Sioux Marie, climbing sand dunes, finding rocks on the beach (yes, rocks, not shells), seeing historical sights, and--my favorite--visiting lighthouses.
The last lighthouse we visited was at the end of a breakwater or jetty. As I was having my devotions shortly afterward, I was reminded of this particular breakwater. It was a windy day and, on the left, as we walked towards the lighthouse, the waves were thrashing against the huge boulders of rock, splashing us as we were walking. On the right side of the breakwater, the water was perfectly calm. There was a marina, and the boats docked there were very calmly floating on the water. I thought about this picture and could associate it with our daily life. Difficult storms come and go in life. Times may be rough, like the waves, or times could be calm and peaceful. But who is in control of those times? God is. He is the breakwater of our lives.
Now I can’t stop here. As we were walking on the breakwater, we noticed something else. It must have been a normal thing to do, as we saw several kids doing the same thing. Teenagers had brought out mini-trampolines and were using them to dive into the water from the breakwater. Now if it were me, I’d be jumping into the calm water. But no, these kids were diving into the rough water thrashing against the rocks. This brought to my mind the verse in Psalms 18:2 – The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
If I could create a correlation here, I see the breakwater as God. The rough seas represent life, and the calm seas represent the grace of God. Those kids (no matter how crazy I thought they were) represent us. You see, I asked one of them if they didn’t fear diving headfirst into the rocks or been thrashed against the rocks. His answer was, “No, we know how far to jump to be safe.” Now that is confidence!
The question I have to ask, and we all should ask, is this: Is my faith strong enough to have the confidence that God will carry me through? The confidence these kids had in their safety is the kind of confidence we need that no matter our circumstances, God is there with us. What a beautiful reminder God has given to us through His creation.
--Bonnie King
