Ignore the Handrail
This last weekend couldn’t have been much better. My happy place is the beach and it is there that I found myself with my favorite person, for three days.
Jesse and I fished and crabbed and gambled and walked on the beach. We ate and drank and slept in. I did yoga overlooking the ocean. We shopped (I’m currently wearing THE cutest socks EVER that I got at the Vans store). I overpacked and let the hotel room get messy. We watched college football and enjoyed each other without a care in the world. A fabulous weekend.
There was a momentary hitch. A snag. An irritation. A five-second frustration that reminded me of some wisdom that I needed to take back home, back into ‘real life’.
We stayed at the Surfrider Clarion Hotel in Depoe Bay, Oregon (just so happened to be the same hotel we stayed at for our first wedding anniversary. Awwwww). The hotel sits on the edge of a cliff, just outside of town, overlooking an impressive panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Our room had a balcony with breathtaking views.
Sunday morning, while Jesse still snoozed, I headed to the balcony. My heart soared as the ocean roared; God’s Grand Creation was displayed before me… I sat back in the deck chair and began to journal:
God has painted a beautiful picture, laid the path for me to be right here; right now… to see and soak it all in. And the dang hand railing is RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF MY VISION! It’s a good six inches tall. I can see the waves crashing the shore below it. I can see some of the rock formations and the floating kelp beds. Above the railing, I can see a few inches of the deep grey of the deep sea, and the perfect line of the distant horizon.
But gosh dang. I want to see what hides behind the hand rail. What if it’s the whale I’ve been searching the sea for all weekend? What if it’s the most spectacular wave crashing on one of the rock formations just outside of my view?
Thank goodness I only sat in this mental space for a moment. I had to laugh at myself. I was presented with a perfect analogy of what so often happens in life. God has placed me HERE, in this moment to see and enjoy what he has orchestrated. How many times am I so focused on what I can’t see… what I can’t reach yet… that I miss what’s right in front of me?
There was so much beauty I could see above and below the handrail and I could’ve ruined it all by focusing on the handrail.
Lord… help me to see and be grateful for the things that are right in front of me and not spend too much time stressing about those things that are yet out of my reach, or divinely hidden from me for a time. Thank you for the beauty and the blessings that are in every inch of my life, if only I will look for them.
