Life on an island has its problems, as anyone who has lived on one can tell you. It also has its delights – one of which is a closeness to nature missed by most mainlanders.
We lived on a small bay island for almost three years, and look back on our beachcomber years as something special. Things changed day by day: a difference in the colour of the sea; a variation in the ebb and flow of the tides; a change in the build-up of sand along the beaches.
Nature is simply God’s laws, revealing the nature of the Creator in His creation. “For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…” (Romans 1:20) “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22) “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
I owned a small boat on the island, and came to understand just how much we humans depend on laws of nature – something I hadn’t previously thought much about. But when I tried to push my boat down to the water at low tide – an impossible task, for not only was it heavy, but stuck fast by suction – I began to see what I was up against.
A few hours later, I would watch, fascinated, as the incoming tide floated the boat on just a few inches of water. A firm push with one finger then did what had previously been beyond me.
Isn’t that pretty much the story of our lives? God’s moral laws, like His natural laws, are inflexible. We can’t go against them without realising the utter hopelessness of our situation. Freeing ourselves from sin is beyond us.
Thank God for His His forgiveness. It flowed into this world like a great king tide when Jesus died on the cross for our sins! We were “stuck fast” in the old life, and no amount of pushing and pulling could free us. The simple fact is we cannot be saved by self-effort – it’s against everything that Jesus taught. We must be lifted by God’s incoming grace.
Are you trying to please God by doing good deeds? Or have you accepted His free gift of salvation? Stop working against God’s spiritual principles, and ask God to forgive you. Jesus died for you. He took your guilt, and reconciled you to God.
Of course, if you’d rather stay stuck in sin, there’s nothing more God can do, which is sad beyond description, when a simple prayer in the name of Jesus Christ is all that’s required to free you forever. God wants to be your spiritual Father, and because Father God manages this Creation of His, you’ll be in good hands. Life is a whole lot easier when, by God’s grace, you’re not only saved now but also safe for eternity!