The child is playing in the surf, standing near the ever watchful parent (hopefully).  The parent sees the wave and lifts them up just in time saying, “whee” to transfer joy instead of fear into the little one’s mind.

You walk along the surf, your mind emptying its thoughts along the sand.  You never saw it coming, the wave knocks you off your feet.  You tumble and roll, gaining your footing momentarily only to have a second wave grasp you and take you down.  There’s that moment of fear, you want to fight back, you want to survive … a hand reaches you and lifts you up.

Oh to be the child again, always having a hand there to keep you lifted above the waves.  As children we do not have to keep an eye out, that is what parents do.  But, as adults we lose our peripheral vision on our own lives.  We get tunnel vision and never see the waves of life coming until it is too late and the big wave of life takes us under.  Then floundering around grasping for anything thing to keep us afloat, we reach out for anything and everything.  Sadly that takes many further out to sea.

The best way to survive waves is to prepare for them.  I love to walk the shore line, but if the water is rough, I go to the sandbars to keep me protected.  The Christian life is like that as well.  Waves are coming, it is part of life.  God allows them, not to knock you down and drown you, but to teach you to rely on Him.  He IS your sandbar.  When you stray off the safety of His path, He’s there waiting to guide you back.  When you allow the waves to wash you out to sea, He’s your lighthouse in the storm.  The lighthouse never moves, you simply have to look towards Him, move towards Him.

You moved, He didn’t.

You know the way, you see the way, you have to admit what needs to be done and swim back towards the Lighthouse.  He will guide, His light reaches out to you.

Psalm 27:1 NLT
“A psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation–so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”