I reflect, as I sit, on the times I've spent driving the coastline it borders. Up and down, up and down. Caressed by it's cool breezes, transfixed by the voracious kelp forests that seem to spring out of nowhere, and yet go on for miles and miles; awestruck by the unique monoliths that have been carved by force throughout years of constant motion.
I thank God for the Pacific Ocean. It has cradled me from the time I was an infant, and it has carried me continually forward.
I have loved it deeply for as long as I can remember, and the call I feel I must answer to originates from far below its surface.
People look at me kind of funny when I tell them I want to be a shark biologist. "What do you do with a career like that?"
Yes, I want to work with sharks. I want to study them, observe them, swim with them in open water, having learned how to control, not banish, fear as Jacques Cousteau would say. I want to conserve them and educate people about their importance and protect them and help others to practice respect for them.
But it's not all about sharks, not 100% of the time.
Mostly, I've come to realize that I'm here to help protect this ocean, and all the oceans around the world.
I want to cradle it as it has cradled me and I want to protect it from harm.
Sharks, like all ocean inhabitants, must have a home, and I want their home to be healthy and safe. Strong, far from threat of depletion, stagnation, destruction, pollution.
Of course, the point must be made that nothing is new under the sun, to everything there is a season, God holds the entire world in the palm of His mighty hands. Amen and amen. Who am I to trouble myself over worries that the Creator is well aware of? God's got this under control, I realize.
But God also teaches us that He himself walks on the ocean floor, and He has instructed us to protect it, to safeguard it, to support the life that it sustains.
Surely the Almighty doesn't need my help in keeping our oceans clean. Was I there from the beginning? No.
Did I witness Him stopping up the rushing waters to keep from flooding the earth? No.
Do I know the names of every creature in every coral nook, in every deep trench, in every fizzling fissure at the bottom of every fault? No.
Will I ever walk on the ocean floor without protection? No.
But the Almighty does His work through humanity, doesn't he? Yes.
I am to believe according to His word that I have a call on my life which He has foreordained that I must answer to, aren't I? Yes.
Surely He would not have placed this much of a stirring in my heart if it were not meant for His purpose? Yes.
Be good stewards of this earth, His command for all of us. For He has created all things, and He keeps them all in His hands, even numbering the hairs on our heads. He loves His creation. Every bird of the air, every beast of the field, every crawling thing, every living thing that swims.
I, too, love this creation, for it sings every day of the glory and love of God. I love this planet. I love this ocean.
How blessed are we to witness the physical outpouring of His creativity? How are we to honestly stand before His creation and not be brought to our knees by its beauty and the way every atom screams of His love, and His majesty?
All of us love in different ways, with different paths of communication and acts of service and declarations of respect. All of us are called to love this world in different ways. Some are called to protect human life, some are called to protect economies, religion, education, freedom. All of us are called to love one another and to be good stewards of the world we live in.
As for me, I'll always be here, for the rest of my life, to help love this ocean, to help protect it. This is my home.
There's nothing so beautiful as the sun shining on the western coastline of the Pacific Ocean.
Thank you Heavenly Father for this creation. For this ocean.
You bless me by it every day.
