Living Like Sea Glass in Stormy Water

I hear it all the time, “I don’t know how you do it.”

Or I get asked, “How DO you do it?”

Do what?

Survive?

I just do…or I don’t…depends on how you look at it. 

Have you ever been to the beach? 

Have you ever been playing in the waves and found yourself knocked off your feet by a really big one? 

You’re head over heels…

Rolling…

Flipping…

Spinning…

Round and round…

Not knowing which way is up.

Your head is above water for a second…gasp. 

You think you’ve got it…feet on the ground…NOPE!!

There you go, rolling again, and again…

You get it? Been there? 

You finally drag yourself to shore… 

Salt water in the nose…

Scraped knees…

Bleeding elbows…

You look like you’ve been dragged behind a truck.

In the grand scheme of life, it’s just a moment. It’s a very scary, life jarring moment…I’ll give you that…but the moment…the wondering if you’re ever going to make it out alive moment…it can feel like a lifetime. 

It’s not a lifetime. It really is just a moment. I live my day with a lot of those. 

Some moments may seem to repeat themselves…meal prep, teeth brushing, fussing, fighting, missing shoes… “I am NOT getting your binky. If you want it, YOU get it.”

Some may be a little different every day…that excitement is what keeps you on your toes…or hiding in a closet…

Will someone stick a raisin in their nose?

Who will pee on the floor?

Will we find a pet newt today? How about a snake in the retaining wall?

Will the Publisher’s Clearing House people show up at my door? Probably not, I don’t subscribe, but stranger things I have happened.

Is a bear going to knock over my trashcan and drag diapers and kitty litter up the hill?

How about a child begging for paint to create a tadpole graveyard…yes, that one is kind of weird. 

I’ve had hair in my toothbrush, peanut butter in my hairbrush, I’ve found my shoes in the rain, there are funky smells in the minivan, roosters attacking children. I have even had a child urinate on her sister’s head during a “girl fight.” Yes, it happened…I’m really not good at making stuff up.

The moments pass, but they rarely stop you from doing what you do. You love what you do…or, you love who you are living the moments with. Did you stop going to the beach just because of one good wave rolling? I’m sure not. You love the beach, right?

I wouldn’t trade the waves for anything in the world, but I’m also not the one that drags myself out of those waves each day. I’m no lifeguard. I can’t give myself that credit. I just can’t do it. 

The strength comes from a place that is unexplainable, it’s not human. Just when I think I’m not going to make it, the kids drift soundly off to sleep. I’m alive…ha!

I was plucked from the surf…my nose stings from the salt water (it could be the sour smell, coming from the baby’s night shirt…yogurt?), but I made it. I was pulled from the waves, rescued…just in time.

Have you ever found a reverse gem…a piece of sea glass? Ever wonder how it got to be the rare and coveted find that it is? Well, that bit of glass, large or small, whole or broken at the start, spent years rolling, churning, enduring the tumultuous waves. Guess what happens in the end? It comes out beautiful. It comes out something worth having. Valued. In some ways, possibly better than it was before. 

Why would you keep going back to the water? You’re not glass, you have a choice, right? You’re a person and you really don’t enjoy the beating. You really can’t see how it can help. I’m good, just the way I am, right? What more could I possibly need to learn, experience? PLEASE isn’t this enough for now??

Well…life IS the water and every morning, plop, I find myself right back in the surf…sink or swim, start treading and Just. Don’t. Stop.

There is no choice…I’m not finished…

I’m not a fully polished piece of sea glass. I’ve still got a few spots that need smoothing out. 

I can see where some changes have been made, but there are bigger plans for me…still in the making. All I can do is trust that when I’m JUST right, I will be picked off the beach for good, and placed in a bucket, and moved on to my next stage. There is no telling what lies ahead…even sea glass may need to be formed and shaped further once it’s removed from the beach…depends on what plans are in store for it.

The Beachcomber knows what work He’s creating. He knows His plans. He will recognize when I will be just right to complete His project.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Until then…I will just keep rolling with the waves…