A Walk On The Beach

During one of my many walks on the beach I came across a few things that I found interesting. The ocean had a few insights it happened to share with me so I thought I would share one of the them....
When walking down the beach of course there were seashells. You cannot have a beach without seashells! Well, I saw an intersting pebble and picked it up off the sandy floor, observing the arrangement of colors on its surface. When I finished, I threw it back into the ocean and searched for a shell instead. Doing so, I noticed that there were more of the pebbles and pieces of broken shells rather than the regular full shells. I looked closer at another pebble, and that was when I realized that the pebble was not a pebble at all, but instead a shell... the ocean water had caused it to look differently. The water ran over the shell so many times that it wore down its surface and caused it to go from a large shell and into a small pebble.
Then I went to thinking further...people are very similar to the pebbles. The waves of life repeatedly wash our surface and eventually polish us over time just as the large shells become pebbles from the waves of the ocean. We all start like a shell; whole and sturdy. However, with each new wave, it changes the way we look. More so inside than out. They shape us into a different person...We are made new....sometimes into someone we cannot recognize just as I did not recognize that the pebble was actually a shell at first.
The force of the water may also cause the shell to break along the way. A few pieces of the shell may be left on the shore while the others are washed back into the depths of the ocean. Some of the pieces of ourselves are left behind in our pasts for certian reasons while the rest lay in the present. It is impossible to put them back together. The broken piece is then carried on and drifts to a new destination, caught by the waves. The shell still continues its journey even thought it is broken just as we are forced to do.
And so, you can see that the water seems to be a huge factor. It was the water that caused the change in the shells and took them where it wanted. Well, there is a figure that resembles the water. Yes, God. God is the water and we are the seashells. He shapes us and polishes us throughtout our life. While we may break during the proccess, it does not matter. Even the small, broken pieces of shells with holes in its surface are still picked up on the shore and admired. Afterall I picked one up. They are not forgotten and lost in the depths of the ocean. They are still cared for them just as God cares for us. The creatures in the shell are dependent on the water just as our souls are dependent on God. And in the end, we become like the pebble I happened to pick up, smooth and better yet, beautiful!