Genesis 1:2 CSB Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Genesis 1:21 CSB So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged creature according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Job 38:8-11 CSB Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and total darkness its blanket, when I determined its boundaries and put its bars and doors in place, when I declared, “You may come this far, but no farther; your proud waves stop here”?
Psalm 8:3-9 CSB When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands you put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
Psalm 89:9 CSB You rule the raging sea; when its waves surge, you still them.
Psalm 93:4 NASB More than the sounds of many waters, Than the mighty breakers of the sea, The Lord on high is mighty.
Psalm 104:24-26 CSB How countless are your works, Lord! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small. There the ships move about, and Leviathan, which you formed to play there.
Psalm 107:28-30 CSB Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed. They rejoiced when the waves grew quiet. Then he guided them to the harbor they longed for.
Psalm 139:9-10 NASB If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
Psalm 146:5-6 CSB Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. He remains faithful forever,
Isaiah 43:2-3 CSB When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior. I have given Egypt as a ransom for you, Cush and Seba in your place.
Jeremiah 31:35 CSB “This is what the Lord says: The one who gives the sun for light by day, the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar— the Lord of Armies is his name:
Amos 9:6 NASB The One who builds Hisupper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the face of the earth, The Lord is His name.
Micah 7:19 CSB He will again have compassion on us; he will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Habakkuk 2:14 NASB For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
Matthew 8:27 CSB The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him!”
Revelation 15:2 CSB I also saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had won the victory over the beast, its image,and the number of its name, were standing on the sea of glass with harps from God.
We climbed into the minivan for a drive on a sunny, warm-but-not-too-warm day, passing horse farms and the river, watching sunlight burst through the tops of trees.
Sitting along the edge of the beach, we tipped over buckets of moistened sand to form sand castles. Pine needles and lost feathers, bits of shell and pebbles smoothed by the waves became castle flags and decorations.
Then we walked and collected treasures washed ashore by the tide.
Children see treasures in ways we do not. I picked up unbroken shells, shiny, smooth, etched with color and patterns.
My little one picked up massive clam shells covered in barnacles and sand, murky in color and awkwardly shaped. She handed me slivers of broken shells and even tried putting fistfuls of sand in her treasure bucket.
It was beauty to her.
What is it about the seaside that brings peace to the soul? Maybe it’s the rhythm of the waves, the comfort of knowing that the wave will come and another and another, in constant motion, totally faithful, reliable, trustworthy.
And that is our God. He doesn’t wash over us and then pull back never to return again. He brings wave after wave of ever-coming, perpetual grace. The world is an uncertain teeter-totter of a place, with unexpected terrors lurking around corners and surprises that drop us to the ground.
But God—He is faithful. God—-He is always grace. God—He is ever true.
That night, we raced home to eat dinner and become beautiful: Choosing outfits, doing hair. The girls fought over bracelets. We traveled to see the Ballet Magnificat, a professional Christian ballet company.
The music began. Just instruments at first. The dancers took to the stage and one lone female voice sang,“Praise the Lord, O my soul and let all that is within me praise His name.”
One ballerina stretched her arms high in worship. Her fingers almost touched heaven she was so long and outstretched.
And I caught my breath at the total abandon in praise to a God so worthy.
That day, we took a break for beauty. We paused and lingered long with friends and we filled our souls in the deep wells of nature and dance and worship. It was like brushing against the curtain of heaven.
Our God did it on purpose, putting those first two human beings in a garden, and we long for that Eden even now. He created us for that place of intimacy in His presence surrounded by beauty. Stasi Eldredge says it here:
Beauty reminds us of an Eden we have never known, but somehow our hearts were created for.
Scripture reminds me that God is Himself beautiful:
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple
(Psalm 27:4)
And God is a Creator of beauty:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Beauty is transcendent. It is our most immediate experience of the eternal (Stasi Eldredge).
God makes all things beautiful in time—and He has set eternity itself in our hearts. We long for it, ache for the day when we see the transformation He intends, see the untainted beauty of a sinless world.
And so glimpses of beauty here and now stir our hearts for heaven, for eternal glory with Him.
Beauty puts a face on God and makes his presence known (Margaret Brownley, Grieving God’s Way).
I’m digging deep into garden soil. I’m trekking through a botanical garden. I’m watching caterpillars form that chrysalis and then climb out as butterflies. I’m listening to concerts and walking the halls of museums.
There has to be intentionality here. We can get so distracted by that tyrannical urgent, so caught up in the rush and noise of the day.
After beauty fills you up, it too often spills out and sloshes over the sides of your heart every time there is rushing, stress, tension, worry, boredom, work, monotony.
We must work hard to protect the memory and refill often by taking a break for beauty and by seeking the soul-filling glory of God’s presence.
Will you join me this month?
To hear the song by Kristene Mueller that began Ballet Magnificat‘s performance, you can click here or click Play on the video below from the blog.
Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. Her book, Ask Me Anything, Lord: Opening Our Hearts to God’s Questions, is available now! To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.
Yesterday, my youngest and I waved goodbye to her older sisters as they rode off to school and we climbed into the minivan for a drive on a sunny, warm but not too warm day, passing horse farms and the river and watching sunlight burst through the tops of trees, casting shadows here and brilliance there.
We traveled to see friends. We don’t do this often enough, just sitting and talking, laughing,
watching kids play with toys. In all of life’s busyness and the red circles around almost every day on the calendar, we don’t give enough time to friendship.
Sitting along the edge of the beach, we helped tip over buckets of moistened sand to form sand castles. Pine needles and lost feathers, bits of shell and pebbles smoothed by the waves became castle flags and decorations.
Then we walked and collected treasures washed ashore by the tide. Children see treasures in ways we do not. I picked up unbroken shells, shiny, smooth, etched with color and patterns. My little one picked up massive clam shells covered in barnacles and sand, murky in color and awkwardly shaped. She handed me slivers of broken shells and even tried putting fistfuls of sand in her treasure bucket.
It was beauty to her.
What is it about the seaside that brings peace to the soul? My friend says maybe it’s the rhythm of the waves.
I think she’s right. I stood there for a moment and thought of the comfort it brings me knowing that the wave will come and another and another, in constant motion, totally faithful, reliable, trustworthy.
And that is our God. He doesn’t wash over us and then pull back never to return again. He brings wave after wave of ever-coming, perpetual grace. The world is an uncertain teeter-totter of a place, with unexpected terrors lurking around corners and surprises that drop us to the ground.
But God—He is faithful. God—-He is always grace. God—He is ever true.
After a stop at the school to pick up my older girls, we raced home to eat dinner and become beautiful: Choosing outfits, doing hair. The girls fought over bracelets.
Then we met with other friends and drove once more, this time to see Ballet Magnificat, a professional Christian ballet company.
The music began. Just instruments at first. The dancers took to the stage and we watched and it was fine and it was okay.
But then one lone female voice sang,“Praise the Lord, O my soul and let all that is within me praise His name” and the dancer stretched her arms high in worship, her fingers almost touched heaven she was so long and outstretched.
And I caught my breath.
This was worship. This was total abandon in praise to a God so worthy.
Yesterday, we took a break for beauty. We paused and lingered long with friends and we filled our souls in the deep wells of nature and dance and worship.
I want to carry that along all this week and be intentional about it.
After beauty fills you up, it spills out and sloshes over the sides of your heart every time there is rushing, stress, tension, worry, boredom, work, monotony.
We must work hard to protect the memory and refill often by taking a break for beauty, by seeking the soul-filling glory of God’s presence.
This week, I’ll be meditating on the verse to help me remember:
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple
(Psalm 27:4)
To hear the song by Kristene Mueller that began Ballet Magnificat’s performance, you can click here or click Play on the video below from the blog.
Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer for www.myfrienddebbie.com and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.
Heather C. King - Room to Breathe 