I shall not grow tired...

From a conversation last night:

Visitor: So what do you do for recreation?

*silence*

Me: I go to the beach now and then...

Visitor: But it's the same beach!

*silence*

Me: But it looks different everyday.

*silence*

In that one moment, in articulating that one answer, my heart was gripped by a wave of violent love for this place, and once again, the familiar words of GK Chesterton washed over me.

"...for grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun, and every evening 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them...

The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence, it may be a theatrical encore..."

Oh God, You who made the Heavens and the Earth, who made this sea that I run by, walk past, drive along, lie beside...

Some days the sea is turbulent, the waves rough and strong and wild, as though challenging me to a race. Yesterday I ran straight into an approaching storm, embraced by the violent wind, my vision blinded by the torrential rain and I felt Your strength, Your power, quite literally, threatening to blow me away. 

Other mornings, You make the sea calm and You throw Your light upon the surface, and I watch the rays of light dance playfully across the water. Its beauty draws me so, while its brightness makes it hard to look at directly - much like You, whose immanent love lures me to come close while Your transcendent holiness keeps me in speechless fear.

No, I shall never grow tired of looking at the sea.