Another year, another trip to the beach. Not much changes for me because I love the beach.

The thing is that not everyone sees it that way, because (gasp!) not everyone likes the beach, or the water.

My youngest is not one of those people. He’s like me: he loves the beach. And the sand. And the other kids. And … the waves.

The thing is though, he’s not ready for every wave. Some of them buffet his little body and send him flying. And this year, even though he’s a stronger swimmer than he was a year ago, he reacts differently than he did a year ago. Granted, it’s only the first day but the thing is, he has a greater understanding of the water’s power.

[Editor’s note: Last year, I posted a series of musings from the beach that I called “View From The Shore.” This year, I intend to do the same… if I don’t fall asleep under an umbrella somewhere!]

He’s all of two and half, maybe three, feet tall. And the onslaught of oncoming waves seems tremendous. So he runs up and asks me to go in with him, he wants me to grab his hand, and lift him up, when the waves seem too big for him. And, throwing my copy of Ready Player One down [seriously, how have I never heard of this book? It’s a book every child of the 1980s or arcade games should read], I enter the water to realize…

every wave seems too big for him today.

Not just the waves that might knock him down, but even the ones that end up rippling at our feet, that dissipate before they get to us.

And I realize that to us, every wave, every storm, every seems like one we can’t overcome. And the thing is, God wants us to cling to him the way that my little buddy clings to me but God recognizes that not every wave is capable of knocking us over, not every wave is a tragedy or a threat to our footing, even if they all look that way to us.

God sees the big picture, just like I could see the pattern of the waves and recognize that not all of them were typhoons!

Now, if only I could take the God’s-eye view, the long view, when it comes to the waves in my life…