Sea Worthy…

Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 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.

For the last eight days we have been cruising the “remotest part of the sea”… or at least it is to us!

We have seen a glacier, a salmon hatchery and a temporary rain forest in Juneau, Alaska. We have taken a train and around and even THRU a mountain in Skagway, Alaska. We have seen eagles and their nests in Ketchikan, Alaska. And now, today we are in Victoria, British Columbia to top off our Pacific adventure with city life – the Canadian way.

We didn’t take this cruise to escape God’s Spirit but in true confession we didn’t take this cruise to view God’s Spirit at work either. It was JUST a vacation.

But God…

Isaiah 55:12 “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 

Thank You, Lord God…

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. 

When we SAW the great glaciers, and HEARD man’s pessimistic concerns for the future demise, we REMEMBERED Who created them. We were left breathless at the full circle of life which continues whether this ant-sized male and female participate in all of the solutions mankind can imagine &/or try in rectifying global warming.

It isn’t that I don’t understand the fear of losing something I treasure. It isn’t that I won’t do all I can, and even be proactive, in good stewardship of all of God’s creation.

But this trip has given me view of our future, and it is not a future filled with fear. This trip has renewed the knowledge that…  it is God who is at work in (and outside of) you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

I want you to know that God did not allow us to see His work through rose-colored glasses. We have seen God through rain and wind and therefore somewhat cold. Yesterday was the first day we saw the sun and were warmed by it.

Even this, not so fine weather, has contributed to our hearing God’s message. In fact, both my husband and I agree that seeing these sights in any other way would have diminished our understanding that we were witnesses to the glory of God. The glory of God that planted and gardened this wild land, underneath snow and ice, surrounded by a sea that is intense and more than persistent in its mission to find the path of least resistance.

The glory of God that prepared this luscious table of wild and called those men and women who could and would honor His challenge to come and partake of His feast.

The glory of God which waits with patience as the ice bears down until it is “blue in the face”. When the ice melts (in a hundred or so years) it leaves behind what looks to be rock upon which nothing could ever grow.

And yet… wait a little while (just a few years more) and you will see that a whole lush green land will grow and be filled.

We found that one can look at what HAS happened, what IS taking place right now, and what MAY happen in the future, in at least two ways. Either with hope and certainty or with discouragement and fear.

We heard the cries of the pessimistic prophets who were telling us that the end was near for our (man does have the audacity to take possession of anything and everything) ice fields. We were given the evidence of this disaster through measurements taken and assessed by renowned scientists. I don’t dispute the melting… but looking through the raindrops, and seeing the mountains rising above us and the ocean rocking below us,  we could not help but know how small we are and how big our God is.

If our future were in the hands of men I would be nothing but pessimistic… but when you have faith in our Creator and Sustainer, you taste and see God… and you KNOW you have a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. What we planned and looked forward to as a vacation, became a deeper awareness of our GOOD God… His call to come closer… and our joy in finding Him… Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart”

It was indeed as if the Alaskan mountains and hills broke forth in shouts of joy before us, and all the trees of the field clapped their hands as we cruised by.

God is good, all the time… And all the time, God is good!

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB  version of the Bible