He brought a shovel to the beach…
He was a man on mission.
As soon as he got to the beach…
He started digging…
His back to the lake.
As the waves rolled in…
and the seagulls called…
His whole attention focused on the hole he was digging.
He was a big guy and the beach sand disappeared rapidly.
Soon the hole was one foot deep…
Then two feet deep…
Then waist deep.
His face wore a look of determination.
He was building something…
Making something…
Doing something worthwhile with his time.
I watched with foolish pride.
“He’s wasting his time,” I thought…
“There’s no point in digging a hole in the sand…”
“Time and kids and waves will fill it in by tomorrow.”
“All his work will be for nothing…”
I had brought something worthwhile to fill my time on the beach…
It was a book about God and our relationship with Him…
Reading that book was working for God, I thought…
I felt virtuous as I pulled out the book and started to read…
Tried to read…
But the sound of the waves pulled me back to the lake…
The call of the seagulls raised my eyes to the sky…
And everything I saw and heard and felt raised my heart to God…
I wanted to read the book…
I told myself God wanted me to read the book…
But the beach got in the way…
The sound of the waves got in the way…
The blue sky got in the way…
That’s when I realized that I had brought my own shovel to the beach…
In the form of a book.
That’s when I realized that what God wants first from us is not our work…
But our heart…
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
I put away the book for another day…
And sat and marveled…
At the sky…
And the sand…
And the water…
And God.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1
