Run In and Out of the Waves!
Did you know that the southward and northward flowing ocean currents of the Atlantic Ocean meet near Cape Hatteras, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks? Here the Gulf Stream, warm and salty, breaks away from the coastline and heads eastward toward Europe, but not before converging with the Labrador Current that carries cold and relatively fresh water from the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans. These two water masses have very different densities, so they don’t just quietly mix, but rather, they collide with one another. Thus, these volatile and dangerous waters are known as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
Both the Gulf Stream and Labrador Current are rapid moving surface currents, meaning they are driven by global wind systems and fueled by the sun’s energy. Slow moving and looping deep water currents on the other hand, which make up the majority of the ocean’s waters, are due to differences in water density (water temperature and salinity).
The ocean is one of our favorite places to hang out. And whether it is low tide or high tide, whether there is a rip current or very little current, or whether the ocean water is cold from the Labrador Current or warm and salty from the Gulf Stream, 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.
While our lives ebb and flow, some days life seems calm with soft gentle waves and other days you find yourself staring at some of the world’s biggest and most dangerous surf breaks, you can rest assured that just like the ocean is always the ocean regardless of the water conditions, God is always love, God is always faithful, God is always in control, regardless of your life conditions.
We find these words in Psalm 42:7-8 – “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life.”
In those verses, v.7 is one of lament. The psalmist is downcast, possibly sensing deep despair. Yet, in v.8, one of tremendous hope, he still experiences evidence of God’s great love. A love that just keeps washing over him. 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.
So, regardless of the condition of the ocean water that you stand in, whether it is calm and peaceful or volatile and dangerous, run in and out of God’s waves of love and let Him refresh you over and over and over again.
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