rolling like an ocean...

I'm on the porch watching the waves roll onto the sand in Pensacola beach. All the waves have whitecaps because there was a storm last night. Yesterday, the water was clear and this beach was perfectly calm. Today, it is chaotic but still the same. Sarah and I were making analogies last night, talking about how forgiveness is not like an ocean but love is.

Love, it is often said, is like an ocean. Today I think it is. Real love is huge because you can never see the end of it. Real love is a refuge because it is constant. There are times however, when love is peaceful, and other times when it can get really choppy. But it is still love, just like the ocean is still the ocean.

Sometimes when you dig deeper into the heart of a person, you find treasures, just like finding sand dollars on the ocean floor. Other times, you find hurts that have been covered and disguised - like the broken sand dollars. Jellyfish are like the lies Satan wants you to believe that threaten to ruin your perception of love because they are painful. Just as a jellyfish sting in the ocean can cause you to fear the water and what you cannot see, so can hurt, lies and pain turn love into bitterness.

But love knows the sun will set, just as it does every night, and that tomorrow is a new day.

Just as the sun rises in the morning on the ocean, and the storm has rolled out, love forgives, and gives a fresh start.

Love, like the beach, brings new waves and new tomorrows.