Who shut in the sea with doors, when it burst forth from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, "Thus far you shall come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed? 

Have you commanded the morning since you days began, and caused the dawn to know its place...?

Job 38:8-12, ESV

We just got back from a trip to Ocean Shores in Washington State. While I was there, I went down to the ocean just about every day around dawn and marveled at the power and beauty of the ocean. I lived close to the Pacific Ocean when I was a little boy, and I am still amazed at its power and beauty. Being able to observe God's nature up close, I am always surprised at people who fail to acknowledge God as the Creator, or who just deny His existence outright. It's like sticking your hand on a hot stove and denying its heat - you really do have to be thick-headed and stubborn to deny such realities. Maybe that's why God inspired the Apostle Paul to pen these words:

"For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse"

The reason I bring this up, is that despite all of the marvelous displays of God's power that are so clearly evident, the Pacific Northwest is an area that is largely composed of people who are skeptical (to say the least) of God's existence. Now, I do want to say that there are still many fine Christians in this area of the world, but they seem to be vastly outnumbered. I had a good friend who lived in this area for a number of years who described this region as "pagan". The irony of my friend's observation is that he was born and raised in Africa. He had seen, firsthand, the pagan culture, yet it was this area that struck him as being largely without God.

But I don't want to focus so much on that particular problem in this article. What I would like to focus on is the awesome power of God's creation that I was so blessed to be able to see over the course of this last week.

It all started with my wife Carolyn and I going to visit our son and his family at a house they had rented not too far from the ocean near Seattle. The first day was spent "hopping" from beach to beach. The grandkids and I spent most of our time hunting for shells and throwing rocks into the ocean. It was the first time I had been around it for a number of years, so I was, to say the least, completely enthralled by the waves crashing into the shore and then heading back out to sea. The second day we found another beach and combed it for sand dollars! I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the grandkids, but it was a wonderful experience.

On the third day, we headed to a rainforest and got the full treatment, for it did indeed rain on us that day. Afterwards we went to Ruby Beach, one of the most famous of the beaches in all of Washington. There are huge rocks offshore, and to watch the waves pound into these rocks with such force as they do was an incredible experience. I'm not sure which was more impressive between the sights and the sounds, but it was quite an experience.

The fourth day was much quieter, as we spent a good part of the day driving to and from a place to worship with the church, but we had a nice day of rest to help prepare us for the next few days that we had remaining. On Monday, our kids headed to the Cascade Mountains, while Carolyn and I went to a place called Cape Disappointment. We found a place there called North Point and spent quite a bit of time sitting on the shore watching the waves strike the land with such force that they often would reach nearly a third of the way up a set of cliffs that must have been a hundred feet high. 

The last two days, we headed into Kirkland where I lived as a small boy, and I got to see the old neighborhood. We had lived on the edge of a large forest which had been mostly cut down to allow for new development, but it was still wonderful to see the place that I have such fond memories of. We even cut through a small part of the old forest on a walk to my old grade school which is situated across the street from the Bridle Trails State Park. The next day we caught back up with the kids and rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island, where we ate at a restaurant by the Peugeot Sound and discovered that my oldest grandson did not like fried oysters nearly as much as he thought he might. Afterwards, we took the ferry back to Seattle, worshipped with the church in Kirkland at their midweek service, and then headed to a hotel near the airport so we could fly back the next day.

Now, I'm sure that it's easy to tell that this was a special trip for Carolyn and I, but what's the point about boring you with all of the details? Just this: The place where we stayed and enjoyed such beauty is only a small fraction of the earth that God created for His beloved people. But it was in this tiny part of this small planet in God's vast universe that we were able to witness a portion of the might and glory of God that will leave an indelible impression in our minds for as long as we live. Who else but God could think of such things as we have seen this past week? Who else but God has the power to speak such places into being? Who else but God would love a people so much that He would create them in the first place, and then allow them to live in a place that He Himself had so carefully planned, and then placed into existence?

And who else but God could have something even better planned for His children than the beauty that we can all see in this world if we will just open our eyes long enough to see it? Having said that, who could possibly even think about missing out on the Heaven that He has planned for the faithful? Who would dare to not read His Word in order to find out everything they could about what God expects of us? Who would dream of not doing these things, once they had read from Hid Word what they were?

We are indeed a blessed people! I know that there are hard times that many go through, but there are a lot of good times as well. And the God who created such beauty for us to enjoy now, will surely not let us down with the eternal beauty that Christ has gone to prepare for those who will be faithful in their short time on this earth. One final thing: After witnessing the awesome power of this little sliver of God's creation that we have been so blessed to take part in, why would we want to do anything but our very best to partake in this marvelous eternity He has waiting for us?