God’s Love is Like the Waves

Whether it is low tide or high tide, whether there is a rip current or very little current, and whether the ocean water is very cold from the Labrador Current coming out of the Arctic Ocean or very warm from the Gulf Stream originating at the tip of Florida, one thing about the ocean is constant – while the water ebbs and flows and the tide rises and falls, the ocean keeps crashing onto the shore. The waves, whether big or small, just keeping coming, one right after another.

The tides are caused by the gravitational attraction of the ocean’s water to the sun and the moon, and there are two tidal bulges every lunar day (the time it takes for the moon to make one full rotation on its axis) with two high tides and two low tides. Because a lunar day – 24 hours and 50 minutes – is longer than a solar day, the tides are not exactly 6 hours apart. The two phases of the tide are called ebb and flood, with the ebb being when the water drains way from the shore and the flood being when the water rises again.

You might not be aware that there is a third tide, called a slack tide. This is the short period of time when there is barely any movement either way in the tidal stream, before the direction of the tide changes. 

Just as the ocean’s water rises and falls, our lives are a constant ebb and flow, up and down, in and out. Some days life seems calm and the waves are small and other days you find yourself in heavy waves (surfer lingo for big and gnarly waves), but you can rest assured that just like the ocean is always the ocean regardless of the water conditions, God is always love regardless of your conditions. Stand in the ocean and the water will constantly wash over you. Stand in God’s love and it too will always wash over you, wave after wave after wave.

You might be familiar with the Psalm 42, or at least you’ve probably heard the oft used first two verses of the psalm – “As the deer pants for water, so my soul pants after you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God.” Those words wonderfully describe how we are to thirst for God. Later on in this same psalm, and where I want to focus today, we see God’s unending love and presence in the midst of dangerous waves. Here is what we read in verses 7-8, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life.”

Those two verses reference the distress that the author of the psalm suffers but also confesses great hope in God in those times of trouble.

So, in these last days leading up to Christmas, regardless of the condition of the ocean you stand in, run in and out of God’s waves of love, and let Him refresh you over and over and over again.

Dave’s note: Each day I celebrate the victories I experience in my recovery, no matter how small they might seem. I could not do this without God’s great compassion and healing touch, the prayers and love that have come our way, my many therapists pushing me past where I think I can go, and last but not least, the unending love, support, patience, and encouragement from Robyn, Katie and Josh, Lindsay and Matt.

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