If grace is an ocean ...

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden, I am unaware

of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,

Oh how He loves.

It's kind of hard not to worship in places like this.  I forget how beautiful, amazing, and powerful the ocean is.  Pictures just cannot do it justice!  It has been sweltering here this week.  I spent a few hours each morning sightseeing around St. Augustine and Daytona ... until I was wringing wet.  However, the second I hit the beach, the wind and the waves have an amazing cooling effect and sitting there in my chair with my Happy Hour Diet Coke, I have yet to even break a sweat!  Crazy.  The breeze, the sound of the waves, the power of the water... it's like nothing else is there.  You don't hear all the chit chat of neighboring sunbathers ... there are no distractions (except what I bring with me), just cool breeze, peaceful waves, and beautiful view.  And its vastness ... you can't even see where it ends.  And its power ... every afternoon I end up moving my chair back 4 or 5 times as the tide creeps in.  I start about here ...

and when the water comes up under my chair, I dig up the chair legs and move it on back ... and back ... and back ...  I've had several conversations with Gavin this week about tide (guess its the mathematician in him)  but to think that the pull of the moon is strong enough to impact something as vast as the ocean.  To think that they would even be related ... What a BIG God!  What a creative God.  He did all of this ... and He is still concerned about the petty little things that concern me??!!!!
If only every afternoon brought such solace ... a chair in the sand, the sight and sounds of the ocean, cool breezes, and Sonic happy hour ... maybe Kenny Chesney is onto something ...

You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.   Neh 9:6

The seas have lifted up, O LORD, the seas have lifted up their voice; the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.   Psalm 93:3

The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.  Psalm 135:6

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?   Ps. 8:3-5