One of the things I love about living in Fife is that I do so on the coast. I love being able to go out on a walk or a run and do so by the sea, to stop and gaze out over the wideness, seeing the sea on both sides as far as the eye travels really reminds me of just how insignificant I am.
This insignificance is particularly noticeable when I walk along the beach, seeing the grains of sand that can’t be numbered, millions and millions of them underfoot.
This is all very sombre, so what is my point?
At school we used to sing a hymn with the words:
“There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea; there's a kindness in His justice, which is more than liberty. There is no place where earth's sorrows, are more keenly felt than heaven: there is no place where earth's failings, have such kindly judgement given.”
I didn’t really understand the words, they were just things that we sang. It was only when I first heard the words to oceans, a much more hip and popular church song, that I understood what the words were getting at.
“There is a kindness in His justice which is more than liberty”. God cares for us more than giving us the freedom to make our own choices, He supports us, He loves us, He intervenes for us. But it isn’t just that God is Kind, that his kindness is enough to take an interest or show love to a part of his creation…
“There is no place where earth's sorrows, are more keenly felt than heaven: there is no place where earth's failings, have such kindly judgement given”. God knows, He sees, and He feels whatever is going on in our lives, because he knows and cares about us intimately. He knows the thoughts of our hearts, words that will never be said out-loud He hears.
So standing out on the beach, seeing the waves rolling in, standing on millions of grains of sand, I feel God beside me, around me and in me. And the God who is standing with me is the same God who cares and knows me so deeply and intimately, the God who formed this beach, and who knows how many grains of sand are on its shore.
