A beach on Lake Michigan. We weren't even supposed to have ended up there! With a heel spur nagging with every step, I had suggested a beach that was close to the parking lot. Road works had made us miss the turn-off to the other beach, hence this beach. I was in pain and upset.
When we got to the beach after a 1.5 mile trek on a sand covered trail, we expected to see few other people. On the beach there was a melting pot of visitors: a large family of women modestly covered with hijabs and their male counterparts in western clothes taking pictures on the lake's edge, a group of college kids playing catch with a water splash ball in the lake, a young couple and their lab playing fetch with a stick, a teen girl lying reading a book on a towel under a canopy, and a family with young kids walking on the beach dragging a picnic basket and beach chairs along.
We settled on a huge tree trunk to rest and people watch. As we sipped our cool water, we took in the warmth from the sun, the sound of the lapping waves on the beach, the thrumming of speed boats flying by, and the gleeful squeals of the college students bombing each other with the splash ball. The Muslim family group were mostly just taking selfies and couple pictures without much ado. Now and again the lab who had arrived with the young couple, was playing fetch and would leap through the water and yelp with excitement once he had found his stick. The young family seemed relaxed and sun-drenched as they settled on a picnic site.
I started focusing on my surroundings. We had settled on the trunk of a dead tree, that was lying on the beach, stretching two of its big branches into the shady part of the beach. I looked down at the tree trunk and noticed that the trunk's bark was rough and fully intact. Then my eyes wandered down the trunk and I noticed that some of the branches seemed weather-worn and smooth. This made me ponder.
How had the trunk of the fallen tree stayed so rough and intact? How had some of the branches become so worn and smooth? I was drawn to the silky feel of the weather-worn branches. I let my hand slide over the length of the branch and I was drawn to its satiny texture. On the other hand, the coarse texture of the tree trunk seemed callous and unattractive to me.
My thoughts went deeper still. I was wondering about the attitude of my heart when I had first stepped onto the beach. My body language had been unyielding and just like the trunk of the tree I was now sitting on, it seemed immovable and callous. I dug even deeper into my heart, and wondered how this could change, so that my attitude would become attractive and smooth like the branches. I knew the answer before I had even finished that thought! I had to ask for help.
I started praying and asking God to help me, to remove the ugly callous bark and to make me a silky branch instead. The realization came to me that most wood that is used to craft anything, has to be debarked, sanded, sawed, or cut, in order to make it into something beautiful. So admitting my bad attitude to God and then turning away from that attitude, was a great start. However, turning toward my husband and apologizing would change that day into a good day.
Having a teachable and repentant heart is like being changed from a rough textured tree trunk, into a weathered silky branch!
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
God bless until next time!
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