Today, I walked umbrellaed under the shadows of a gloomy sky. It was peaceful. Humid. Faces were pleasant, some in deep thought, others focused on shedding a few kilos. Sweaty.
Natalie Grant worshipped in my ears, transcending my body and spirit into pure stillness. My spirit floated. Everything around me was hushed as I began to hear by sight and soul.
Like ants, familiar passers-by stopped to exchange pleasantries. Some pretended, others were sincere.
I stopped to say hello to Patches’, a friendly dog, and watched a lady pick flowers off the dunes.
Sliver-headed people in locked-hand formations jiggled passed me. Smiles. As babies slept in strollers, their mums met to catch up with some adult time. Hats flew. Hair tossed. Selfies.
Dinky Doughnuts. Mmmmmm. Coffee.
Everything was in its place. The lighthouse. The hotels. Unmovable pieces. Man is doing his thing. Drilling. The sound of metal grinding scatters through my ear pods. Noise. Pain. Shhhh.
Spray. Salt spray. And there she was, so restless.
Far beyond the horizon, she stretched, balancing vessels on her waving back. She rolled them to and fro like the winnowing of grain. A beast of burden, shaking every spec of chaff and trash. Strong. Indeed, she must be the sea of forgiveness.
She buried the thoughts of the distorted man I saw sitting on the bench.
Worry, sin, and fear cast their way into her open waters. With each passing tide, she gulped more of man’s throwaways, drowning each morsel of his foolish nonsense into her watery grave.
Seen no more, they sunk into the deepest parts of her. Hidden. Forgotten. Forgiven and remembered no more.
And then I prayed:
“Lord, you have taken all my sins and failures so wilfully and buried them in the depths of the sea. You have shown mercy and compassion; in your love, you hid me under Your grace, for You have put all my sins on Your back. I am grateful to You that even though my thoughts bring to life the thing that hurt me, You chose to forget and forgive me. In the moments I felt tossed and thrown, it was then that you were shifting me out.”
(Micah 7:19, Isaiah 38:17, Psalms 103:12)