“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Psalm 8:3-4
I have the extreme privilege to live in the beautiful state of Oregon where any natural adventure you could desire is a two hour’s drive in any direction. If you want to climb a mountain: two hours. White water rafting? Two hours. Is snow-shoeing your thing? Two hours. Feeling like a ride through the desert on a horse with no name? Two hours. I think you get my drift. The state is a treasure-trove of natural delights. Having been raised here, I have experienced a plethora of activities in the vastness that is the Pacific Northwest.
Recently, I was able to spend a few days on the gorgeous Oregon coast. This is what I consider my “happy place”. I have walked on the sand of the Pacific countless times. I have raised my kids with frequent family vacations to the beach and it is my pilgrimage; my Mecca.
If you have never been to the Oregon coast, there are a few things you should know. Our beaches are publicly owned and accessible to anyone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is 363.1 miles of uninterrupted coastal beauty. Some beaches are rolling expenses of sand dunes and sea-grass. Others are sheer cliffs of steep black rock, sharp as razors. There is mile upon mile of flat, weathered sand, interrupted only by a slow trickling stream and if you’re okay with getting your shoes wet, you can easily traverse them. There are coastal towns filled with “gotcha-shops” and saltwater taffy. There are arcades, ice-cream shops, bonfires, bumper cars and clam-chowder. There are tide pools, whale watching tours and bay-front Sealion Colonies. There’s Haystack Rock, Hug Point, Devil’s Punchbowl, Depot Bay, Cape Lookout and the rusting metal skeleton of the Peter Iredale shipwreck of 1906. There are eleven Oregon Coast lighthouses, all with their own personality and history: Heceta Head, Cape Blanco and my personal favorite Tillamook Rock (also known as Terrible Tilly) to name a few.
The Oregon Coast is a refuge. The Oregon Coast is a wonder. The Oregon Coast is a friend.
It is hard to put something into words when it hits you so profoundly, so deeply. This is where I find myself, as I’m writing about the Oregon Coast.
An anchor holds its ship to it’s mooring just like my spirit is anchored to the coast. I can be pulled away, tossed and thrown and off course, but when I am at the ocean I find center. I find mooring. My soul is anchored.
On my recent excursion, I stood on the sand looking out on the waves. It was a grey day. The wind was so fierce that I had to turn and walk backwards to gain relief from the merciless gusts. Even in March, the winds were biting-cold. But I was still anchored. I was still in my happy place. It was holy ground.
When I stand and gaze into the waters of the Pacific, pounding out their white-caps, rolling onto pock-marked sands, I feel an amazing presence of God. I would never begin to say that I felt the fullness of God because I don’t believe that as a mortal being I am able to do that, but I feel a connectivity to the Creator of the Universe. I search the breakers and am awestruck at this power. I take in the vastness of the expanse of the water and I am overwhelmed by the vastness of our God. My eyes seek out the horizon and feel the miles that stretch far beyond my vantage point and I know that it goes on and on and on. This is reminiscent of the eternal nature of El Shaddai (God Almighty), of El Eloyn (the God Most High), of Elohim (God Creator).
I am just a speck on the planet.
As I stand on the coastline I remember this.
God is an infinite being who has existed longer than time. He created the heavens and the earth. He created donkeys and monkeys, atoms and ants. He coded our DNA. He breathed and life burst forth. I am a speck. He is God.
There is so much more than the stories I tell myself inside my head. I turn them over and over and they become my everything. I think God must just laugh at this. He knows that his love for me is so much bigger than my concerns. He knows that his plan will supersede it all. He knows that my worries are vapor in the wind. And when I can't remember that, when all I hear are my spinning thoughts and my obsessive ramblings, I go to the Oregon Coast and breathe in the sea-air. I gaze out on the water and I remember that He’s got the whole world in his hands.
When I consider his works. I feel an almost immediate sense of peace. I am so small and my worries, thoughts, problems, troubles, they are nothing.
Now... isn’t that something?
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