Yesterday a friend and I made our annual trek to the most western point of the continental United States. There isn’t much that marks the spot, a plaque approximately 1.5 miles south of the point. Our goal wasn’t even the exact point, rather a beach just south of the point. Every year the weather seems to take exception to its norm and give us a clear day. While the fog hung just offshore you could taste its fingers licking the shore line and stirring up the cool breezes. In the end the impact was simply that the weather was almost forty degrees cooler than camp.
As I walk then ran along the beach in my silence the ebbs and flows of the wind across the sand and scattered driftwood combined with crashing waves and water filtering through black sand and pebble beaches to create an amazing sound. I found myself at a loss to describe just what it was like; the only words then and now are “peace”. The sounds overwhelmed my senses, frustrations, and thoughts and left them feeling whole, at oneness, and in harmony with my Creator.
It is striking how God uses natural sounds to accomplish his ends. I often find myself going to extraordinary lengths to create just the right atmosphere with music, lighting just enough candles to create the mood, and working to manipulate the elements to accomplish a goal. God merely gathers his created works and people, letter the potential unleashed long ago mature and come to its full design.
John saw a scene like this. He wrote, stunned into silence by the sight. “I heard a sound like massed choirs in Heaven singing.” (Revelation 19.1) I write in the early light of day still silenced by God’s choir at the beach. This is a sound that I never want to leave me! This is a sound that echoes of compassion, mercy, and unconditional acceptance. I may have heard a bit of heaven’s choir yesterday. I want grace, mercy, and love all the time. Just think – we hold the keys.
