Sabbath, Seashores, & Shells

  I just returned from a very restful vacation spent in a warmer climate than my Central Ohio home provides at this time of year. Sometimes when we vacation it is a very organized, highly scheduled affair, but this time it was totally without an agenda. Having received invitations to visit from two different friends who were in the Tampa, Florida area, we took them up on their offers and spent 8 very peaceful days just unwinding from work and the holidays. Waking to no alarms, hot coffee and no appointments to hustle to was a nice diversion from normal operating procedure for both my wife and I and was an amazingly relaxing part of our time away. Eating what and when we wanted, napping nearly every day, watching little television, reading extensively, picking up shells on the beach-all contributed to the "get away" feeling we both needed.
   So what made it Sabbath time? I don't know about you, but for me, I feel closest to God when I am near water, especially large bodies of water. I know for some the woods or mountains provide a similar connectedness, but for me the ocean (along with perhaps gazing into the stellar universe) is the most tangible example of the unimaginable power and vastness of our God. In the continuous sound of the surf I sense God's constant presence, in the white beaches I think of God's words to Abraham and my relationship to all of God's children-my brothers and sisters in Creation. Walking along, picking up shells-the handiwork of God, surf crashing around my feet in some sort of perpetual baptism celebration I feel closer to God than anywhere I go, including church. There, in the breeze coming of the ocean or, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico, there are no pretenses or presuppositions about what it means to be a child of God, there are no assumptions about what is "right religion" and what is "wrong," there is no orthodoxy, doctrine or dogma, there is only you, face to face with God's Creation AS God's creation IN God's Creation. There is nothing for me that is any holier than that.