Life at the shoreline (1)

NOTE:  writing today is a heavy task, given the terrible events that have just happened in Paris, and what it says about the need to have simple answers, reduce complex events into understandable but only partially complete views.  The world keeps changing…

When I’ve stood on an open beach – just sand and waves – and listened to the pounding of the surf and watched how the shoreline shifts and moves, I am mesmerized.  The shoreline, where land, water and wind meet, is a vital place on this earth.  Living creatures, plants and animals, meet up and help shape the shore as the wind, water and land do their work.  The shoreline is always changing on us.

This past week took us out for four days and three nights of sailing with some new friends.  We “buddy sailed” so they could show us some special harbors, new to us.  And in one place, we watched and listened to the surf as we walked the pristine sandy beach.  The waves coming in, the sand being pushed ashore, then much of it returning to the sea again.

However, it was another shoreline that caught my attention.  We anchored in the North Sound on the eastern edge of the islands.  Virgin Gorda, Prickly Pear and Mosquito Islands create this bay and we were along the shore of Prickly Pear. 

There, the mangroves caught my eye.  Lots and lots of them, the “stilt” mangroves that have those deep roots which form a trunk above the water line.    There are 110 species of mangroves found in 118 countries around the world, only in the tropic and sub-tropic regions.  In the US, you find them in Florida, Louisiana and south Texas.  These are salt-tolerant plants.  Their chemistry allows them to put up with the salt water at high tide and then adjust again during low tide (the Wikipedia article had lots of words I didn’t understand about this).  And they are a vital part of shaping the shoreline.  Their roots go deep.  Their roots are strong.  And life unfolds in the mud and sand between those roots in amazing ways – the crabs, oysters, algae, fish. 

The roots are so strong that sailors, under an immediate threat of a hurricane and having no other place to go, will drive their boats into the mangrove “forest” and tie off there.  They may scratch the hulls, or the boats may get lifted up over the top of these medium sized trees and land further inland, but the boats are not as likely to be destroyed this way.  Certainly better than driving them into the rocks! 

On the surface, the mangrove-held shoreline looks pretty permanent.  We trust those roots.  But looking carefully enough, we can see the constantly emerging world unfolding before us and see that even when the shore is rocky – or mangrove-y – it’s changing on us.

Several years ago, our daughter Kate introduced me to a singing group, Caedman’s Call.  One of their songs became a favorite of mine.  When I’d drive the roads visiting the congregations of the presbyteries I served, I often would sing along at the top of my voice (no one else in the car, thank you).  The song is “Shifting Sand” and the chorus goes  (am including a bit more than just the chorus)

Sometimes I believe all the lies

So I can do the things I should despise

And every day I am swayed

By whatever is on my mind

I hear, it all depends on my faith

So I'm feeling precarious

The only problem I have with these mysteries

Is they're so mysterious

And like a consumer I've been thinking

If I could just get a bit more

More than my 15 minutes of fame

Then I'd be secure

My faith is like shifting sand

Changed by every wave

My faith is like shifting sand

So I stand on grace, stand on grace

Waters rose as my doubts reigned

My sand-castle faith, it slipped away

Found myself standing on your grace

It'd been there all the time

My faith is like shifting sand

Changed by every wave

My faith is like shifting sand

So I stand on grace

Always like that thought.  Like the shoreline constantly changing and developing, faith in God is filled with moments (sometimes daily) when we recognize some new insight into how our God is at work in the world and our lives.  We recognize a sense of the eternal in the heavenly stars or in the hug of a friend.  We realize we are not alone, even when we feel that way because we’re having a hard time connecting to another creature in the Creation.  Like the mangrove roots, we may have some deep roots and abiding truths we hold dear (about the power of love, about the posture of hope, about the importance of serving the common good).  But all around those roots are shifting sands and moving mud that remind us we don’t have it all figured out…and on this side of life, never will.  We live by grace.  We stand on grace.

Dave

PS.  Next time you’re on a sandy beach, go to the place were the water makes its farthest reach into the shore.  Then, stick your fingers into the sand, like the stilt mangroves.  Intertwine them like the roots and watch what happens.  Enjoy the day.  Pray for peace.