The Caribbean Ocean was the first ocean I ever saw. It was more beautiful than I had imagined. I was 18 and had just landed the day before in Trinidad and Tobago to serve with a missions team from my college. My smart, funny teammate was beside me as we ventured out into the clear, turquoise waters. And he was right there when minutes later a wave crashed over me and then continued to roll me several times onto the ocean floor for what felt like an eternity. I finally surfaced, gasping and coughing, the salt stinging the new abrasions on my knees and elbows. I had not learned to go deeper under the waves to escape their tumbling power.
I had no inkling then that oceans would play such an important role in my life. Fourteen years and four kids later, that smart, funny teammate rasied his right hand to take the Oath of Office to serve in the Navy, and suddenly we were a military family.
Many days, the view is spectacular. But I had no idea then how rough the waves could be out here. Sometimes they just keep coming. I’m still learning how to dive under them to keep from losing my balance and succombing to the power of forces out of my control.
Going deeper is the path to peace.
Maybe you are feeling tossed and tumbled by waves of circumstances beyond your control. You feel the sting and you are struggling to catch your breath.
My prayer for you is this:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19
His love is wider than the widest battlefield, longer than the longest deployment, deeper than the deepest submarine, higher than the highest jet. There is no wave or wind that can overtake you. Wherever your service member is, whatever season your family is in, His love is bigger still.