My family is back from a wonderful, refreshing week of vacation, highlighted by several days at the beach on the Oregon coast. For a short time, we lived in my “happy place,” at my favorite place in the world, with my favorite people in the world.

 

Trips like this provide a gift that keeps on giving. Not only will my memories last a lifetime, my phone is full of pictures that show me, whenever I want, the ocean and the beach and the sunsets, not to mention glimpses of my family enjoying this handiwork of God. My phone even holds a couple of short videos of the waves crashing in, so the ocean can be seen and heard anytime, anyplace.

 

Someone has said that God gave us the gift of memory so we can have roses in December and snow in July. I think He gave me this gift so I can take a trip to the beach whenever I need one. And I do need these trips, not only because they take me back in my mind to a very special time with my family, but also because they scream out to me that God made this world, and He’s still in charge. “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

 

In addition, the ocean, as an immense part of the created world in which we live, helps me understand the unspoken, unheard words of the Creator:

 

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world (Psalm 19:1-4)

 

Thank you, Lord, for who You are, for creating a world of unfathomable beauty, for giving me an incredible time of rest with my family, and for granting me the gift of memory so I can enjoy these things every day for as long as I live.

 

Troy Burns