An Ocean

MON., JUNE 11, 1984, 5:22 PM
KAIMUKI, REC CTR.

You walked today, o son, and the largest ocean on this earth lapped at your feet. You saw many people enjoying the warmth of beach beside this ocean, and it seemed to be a manageable, reasonable body of water. And then you looked away from the beach, and it stretched to the horizon, and you know it goes for thousands of miles and is utterly unmanageable. What kind of a lesson can I create from this. Hear well, o son.

This ocean that you can see so often here from this island is “an ocean,” one of several oceans, and one of many bodies of water on this earth. It is the largest and most majestic. Still, it is called the Pacific, which means that it is gentle and serene. Always? No, for great storms have moved across its waters… storms of frightening intensity.

In somewhat like fashion there are a relatively small number of persisting religions, and though Christianity is not the largest, it is My favorite and, hence, symbolically, the one I would put as the counterpoint to the Pacific Ocean. In this religion I am portrayed most often as a loving, forgiving God, and, as Jesus, I am seen most often as gentle and serene. Oh, some Christians, certainly, like to recall My anger and My dispensing of justice quite often, as do some who recall Pacific storms often and with vividness. The metaphor is not perfect, but interesting.

You know there are other oceans… and other religions… but your knowledge of these others is about equally academic, second-hand, and incomplete. You do not really know the North Atlantic, nor do you truly know Islam… the Indian Ocean… Hinduism. Perhaps sometime you shall know the Aegean Sea better… and some small but beautiful way of relating to Me, used by others.

The faith which is yours to have and gain as part of the Christian religion is wide and deep as an ocean, such as the Pacific. In some churches, or segments, there is much life, and the faith is a definite part of the daily life of people. Other churches lie dormant, with little life, just as certain sections of ocean do.

I have told you that the ideal life which has Me as a working partner has a rhythm to it, and a balance that is advantageous to that life. The ocean has a rhythm to it, and you watched it roll in and then retreat back today. There was a rhythm, but not an unchanging, completely predictable one. Balance also was evident, with no one getting hurt… the rhythm produced joy in small ones, and fun for those who could ride some of the small waves. You see the parallel, I’m sure.

The Pacific looked blue and beautiful today from a distance… not quite so awe-inspiring up close. You have seen the Pacific in other shores looking gray, drab, and angry. So, too, the faith based in Me as Jesus is beautiful in its ideal forms and “at a distance”. Yet up close, it can look murky, sandy, even muddy. And certain manifestations can be angry… others drab & gray.