His Sunset, His Creation, His Sovereing Will

The sun is setting in Santa Monica... it's beautiful. In a recent devotional study I did for Starting Point, I was asked "at what moments are you most reminded of the grandness of God?" My first answer was an easy one: when I stand in front of the ocean. When I sit in the sand and let hundreds of thousands of grains of sand run through my fingers while the salty breeze blows through my hair, and the sun beats down on my body... while I listen to the AMAZING conversation the clash of each wave has every time they roll against each other and the earth... a roar that no human could recreate... when I sit and look forever to find the ends of the earth, but all I see is water forever and ever and ever.... that's when I remember - who the hell am I?? NOBODY!

I always smile when I stare at the sea and remember the sarcastic tone of God in Job when he graciously puts us in our place for ever thinking we have any grasp of who He is and what He's responsible for:

4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-

7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?

8 "Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,

9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,

10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,

11 when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt'?

12 "Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,

13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?

14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.

15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.

16 "Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?

17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.

Today I am thankfully reminded of His sovereignty - His true, true sovereignty in every breeze, in every leaf fallen, in every wave halted. So that means tonight's conversations are covered by His grace, and tomorrow's mistakes are hemmed in by Him as well.

Lord, by Your grace, always hold us steadfast and let us feel your hand working in our every moment!