Depths

Yesterday was the triumphal cruise for our annual Tour de Honey Dew.  The activities in the half day – driving, dining, and walking the Lost Coast beaches – is one that is an extraordinary cap to an already awesome experience in the Redwoods.  In many ways it is dessert and cappuccino to a perfect meal. 
 
The weather was perfect, you could see for miles!  The traditional coastal fog was on vacation.  The wind, normally punishing and howling, was strangely keeping company with the cows quietly grazing on the hillsides.  Even the brown bitterness of a dry summer still carried the green hope of spring. 
 
I don’t think we understand our experience of yesterday, not yet.  This will come in time, as the wonderful food, gracious hospitality – of people and nature, true friendship, and the full impact of the steps reach into our souls.  Yet the sense of what happened continues to build as time passes.
 
We found ourselves climbing out on a finger rock formation into the sea.  The shore was higher on one side of the rock than the other.  The action of the Pacific waves was relatively quiet on the south side, brutally blunt on the north.  Yet the north side has some incredible found holes, Jacuzzi size and perfect for a quick ocean dip.  As I keep reminding the group, we could be experiencing the wonders of the cold, salty, herb filled waters.
 
Doug and I soon found ourselves climbing down into the pool, dressed as God originally intended except for the shoes on our feet.  As the numbing cold overtook the wonders the depths of the chain caused a momentary sense of panic.  Would we ever get out?
 
I wonder if I’ll ever escape life’s pain and turmoil.  Jesus didn’t in his trial.  “Annas sent him, still tied up, to the Chief Priest Caiaphas.” (John 18.24)  We seemed trapped in yesterday.  Yet today Divinity gives us hope.  The Spirit is reaching to give us a hand, lifting us out of the cold, numbing, grasp of evil’s grip.  The depths need not bind us.