Nippy today but the sky was glorious, gemstone blue, cloudless and clear. I counted four buzzards, pinned like black stars on the blue sky canvas, circling up the sky stairwell. The sun was warm enough for me to do some porch pondering but once the sun left to get ready for sunset, the porch became chilly and Penelope and I came in the house. Kat snuck in for a quick walk around the living room and then went right back out. The few time she’s followed us in the house she just calmly walked around and then was ready to go back outside. One of Chief’s heathen yard cats got in the house in Alex City once and it took all of us to wrangle it back out the front door. It was like a live ping pong ball dancing through the living room and dining room and the library.

Ran across two beautiful new words in my reading today, they even sound lyrical — spoondrift and moonglade. Spoondrift is the showery sprays and sprinkles of seawater pushed from the top of the waves, usually caused by strong winds. Moonglade is the trail of light reflecting from the moon on the water. Moonglades are so pretty, like stairways to heaven placed on the water. When I was in Florida in October a hurricane was churning the waters and the spoondrift carried sand diamonds in its showers. So beautiful to watch the waves during the coming storm.

God is often compared to the ocean. God’s love is deep like the ocean, full of beauty and power. God’s nature is complex as the ocean, calm and peaceful sometimes, forceful and turbulent at other times. God created us and the earth we reside on and provides for us just as ocean is home to an immense array of creatures. Isaiah 51:15 reads, “For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Lord Almighty is his name.”

God is full of mystery and the depth of his love for us is boundless. He is with us through the calm and the stormy times of our lives. His faithfulness never waivers and his grace and love wash over us like an ocean wave. When I gaze out at the ocean, I feel I am but a spec on this planet. I feel the majesty and strength of God as the waves undulate to shore. Job 9:8 says, “He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.”

Nature’s beauty is such a reflection of God. Not only did he make the ocean roar he covered her shores with birds. Genesis 1:20-23 reads, “And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.’ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.”

God’s love is deep like the ocean, boundless and immeasurable. Bible scripture in Psalm 36 says God’s faithfulness is “deeper than the deepest ocean.” When life’s trials wash your feet out from under you and you feel you’re drowning, reach out for God’s hands. He will steady your feet and lead you back to shore.

“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” — Robert Wayland