Yesterday evening we went for a walk along one of my favourite beaches, and of course that meant clambering over the rock pools to see if we could discover anything in them.
In the bright evening sun with a gentle wind blowing, rippling the surfaces it was hard to see into them too clearly, but occasionally when one of our shadows landed on the water something would dart for safety under a rock or behind some seaweed. The final count wasn’t too great but we have also seen far less in rock pools too, plenty of whelks, and even some large limpets on the move, some muscles sifting the water, some very young dog fish, tiny see through shrimp, and some very darty unidentifiable fish fry. There were also the inevitable parts crabs which the seagulls had already feasted on.
A rock pool is a little world of its own refreshed at high tide and it got me to thinking.
Imagine the world as a giant rock pool, and God peeking in to see what is going on, how do we respond when the shadow falls over us?
Do we rush to hide like the shrimp and fish fry, like Adam and Eve did in the Garden when they had eaten from the Tree, fearful of what might happen to us if we are seen,
- because of what we might have done or not done
- because we don’t want to be picked out to do some task God has set
- because we weren’t expecting God at that moment. Why couldn’t have the shadow landed earlier when at prayer or later after that job which had been put off for weeks had been done.
Have we taken the refreshment of high tide – the Holy Spirit – and are healthy. Are we like the crabs which have been removed from the pool and left broken by the side, or are we like the whelks, muscles and limpets hidding behind an outer shell thinking the shadow can’t have an impact on our lives?
Or
Do we stay perfectly still, like the dog fish, confident that we are safe?
The dog fish in its camouflage, us, in the confidence that God is a God of love and mercy and we need have nothing to fear.
