This afternoon when Jack, Louisa and I were at the beach on what felt like a mid-summer day, we came across a deeply-cut, stick-scrawled message in the sand: “Will you marry me?”
No one else was around. “What do you think?” I said. “Authentic?”
“Well,” she said, “it would be the perfect idea for a couple that loves the beach.”
Then she noticed a second etching. “Look at that big heart!”
Sure enough, there was not one but several hearts, each one a few paces from the other in a long line, much like stepping stones. “I’ll bet he brought her to the beach and led her along the hearts till she came to his question at the end.” Louisa said. “How romantic!”
We walked both directions looking for a big “YES!” but considered it might have been washed away by the waves.
In the 1050’s, Pat Boone sang a song called, “Love Letters in the Sand.” It started happily:
On a day like today
We passed the time away
Writing love letters in the sand.
But by the end of the song it had turned into a tale of woe:
Now my broken heart aches
With every wave that breaks
Over love letters in the sand.
Human love can be fleeting, nearly as fragile as words scratched in sand with a stick. Our feelings for someone can disappear as quickly as the tide can erase sandy letters.
* * * * * * * * * *
As we continue through the season of Lent toward the cross, I’m glad Jesus didn’t approach his mission based on his feelings at the time. If he had, he wouldn’t have died for us, because he sure didn’t feel like it. Instead he summoned up an unshakeable will to do it God’s way rather than his own. And it was for one reason: he loved us.
If only we could love like that! We don’t, because it requires setting aside our feelings to favor someone else. Instead we say, “We aren’t like Jesus! We can’t possibly love like him.” Would he agree with that?
He’d probably say, “You think you can’t love like I do? How about if I do it for you, from within you? Could you do it then?”
And of course the only correct answer is, “Yes.”
Maybe that’s where we slip up. We forget to ask him to love through us, and try to do it by ourselves. The Bible says, “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11) Similarly, no one can love like Jesus unless the Spirit of God loves through him. By ourselves, we can’t do it.
Today at the beach as we came to the end of our search for more messages, we saw blurred letters in the sand that had been partially washed away by water: “[blank] and Jenna.”
I hope Jenna and her fiance’ will do better than Pat Boone did.
“The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us… love.” (2 Timothy 1:7)