God's Respite

Beat my record out onto the tranquil intracoastal waterway yesterday morning. The sun had barely poked its corona above the horizon, and I was on the water in my kayak. I was determined to find manatee and dolphin. The tide was low, the water peaceful. Perfect time for creatures to surface for breakfast.

Yes, I look a little bleary-eyed. Doesn't matter. The early bird catches the dolphin and the manatee. Immediately, I caught a heron so sleepy that I crept all the way up to him before he noticed me. Look closely. I captured his photo just as he took flight.

As I kayaked on the gloriously still and sleepy intracoastal waterway, bonanza! At least ten sightings of manatees and one dolphin. None cooperated for pictures, but it was beyond wonderful for my last day at Palm Coast. The sad news is I passed hundreds of porches overlooking this abundance of magnificence and saw two people surveying God's glorious creation. Two. I would be out there every morning, Bible open, coffee steaming, watching the wonder of His incredible beauty. How could people be rich enough to own a porch overlooking this heaven, and be so spiritually impoverished as to not be aware of what a crime it is to not be on that porch while the wonders of God are revealed?????

After my victorious three hours of kayaking with those magnificent creatures, it was time to move on to the next adventure. An anonymous friend had wrapped and left this cool gift (in the photo above) in my mailbox before we left for our vacation. It is a visor that attaches to sunglasses, so no hat head/ smooshed hair. Thank you, anonymous friend. I suspect Carol or Kristin. With my cool visor, and Hubster, on to the beach.

We biked there, swam and enjoyed the sun and waves, then biked back to our condo. Hubster went on home for a nap, but I could not stand to leave the water. I continued on the bike path to the place where manatee are known to aggregate. I was rewarded with yet another manatee sighting.

Next, I settled on a bench nearby, and did another "plein aire" painting. Ants were biting my toes, and my acrylics were doing funky things...glazes instead of opaque paint. No idea why. Not happy with the result, but it was still fun to be on the waterway, feeling the ocean breeze, with ears perked for the sound of manatee surfacing.

I was out all day. From 7 a.m. until 5 p.m., I had been communing with God's creation. I didn't even miss the A.C. despite 90 degree heat and 99% humidity.  Reluctantly, I returned to the condo, sun burnt, and a little tired. I don't want to leave this place.

However, God knows best. It is easy to love the creation so deeply that one forgets the Creator, and worships His work, not Him. This is a grievous mistake and perhaps explains the problem of pain and struggle. CS Lewis describes that struggle perfectly:

If the first and lowest operation of pain shatters the illusion that all is well, the second shatters the illusion that what we have, whether good or bad in itself, is our own and enough for us. Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us. We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St Augustine says somewhere, ‘God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.’ Or as a friend of mine said, ‘We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it’s there for emergencies but he hopes he’ll never have to use it.’ Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him. Yet we will not seek it in Him as long as he leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for. While what we call ‘our own life’ remains agreeable we will not surrender it to Him. What then can God do in our interests but make ‘our own life’ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible source of false happiness? From The Problem of Pain Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Nonetheless, with heavy heart, we head home today. This has been a magical week, even if it is "false happiness." I dread what is in store for me. God has blessed me with so much abundant beauty and joy that I am sure it is His way of filling my grain bins for the famine to ensue. In reality, He alone feeds the soul.

I have created all this, He whispers on the ocean breeze, surely you can trust me with your life.

If famine ensues, so be it. It was worth it. To God be the Glory.

Psalm 104:24-25

²⁴ O Lord, what a variety of things you have made!
    In wisdom you have made them all.
    The earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ Here is the ocean, vast and wide,
    teeming with life of every kind,
    both large and small.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

Proverbs 17:22 

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Ecclesiastes 2:24 

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,

Ecclesiastes 11:9

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

1 Peter 3:10 

For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;

John 16:24 

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

1 Timothy 6:17 

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Luke 1:47 

And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,