I was just thinking about this story written at CBC the other day at church. It reminded me of the prodigal son story, but not about the son that ran away it reminded me about older son trying to do to get grace. And how just being with God can set us free and we can experience life. I was thinking how much I was still trying to do to gain Gods favor and love, which is not what grace is about, it is not what God is about. I am reminded that in the Kingdom of Heaven we are invited to just BE with him. So here you go an old story from my CBC days.
Once upon a time there was a girl who lived on the shores of a great and marvelous ocean. It was a wild and joyful ocean; some would even call it alive. But it was good, very good. One day, when the sea was particularly close, the girl happened to look out her window. Crrrooaaasshh!!!! A running mountain of water wrapped into itself on the ocean shore. She raced out of the hut with wide eyes, and immediately feel in love with the toe-shaking rumble. "I want to know this ocean," she said to herself. In her excitement to learn about the wonders she'd just seen, she started up this mountain, for everyone else was already in the water. "I want to experience the most ocean I can. I want to see all I can with my own eyes." Up, up, up she climbed. "I can understand now! I can see!" she exclaimed, peering out from her lofty view, "I can see!" With each step her joy overflowed with all of the amazing things she was learning. Her legs began to tire, yet she pressed on, the allure of what might be further up driving her along. By now her legs were quite strong. She turned again for a moment to look. "I can understand now! I can see!" She noticed all the people she had passed along the way, those who were ahead and others behind, how good of a climber she had become! Finally, she reached the top. "What a view!" she gasped in awe. She could see all the way to the horizon, and oh how much she now knew about the ocean! She could hardly wait to tell those who she had gone ahead of. Surely no one in the waves could have seen this! Taking it all in, she stood tall. It was at this moment that a pelican came and perched on the peak alongside her to rest from the afternoon wind. "Good afternoon, Sir Pelican," said the girl. "Allo," said the Pelican. They sat in silence for a moment. "Say," said the Pelican, "I've spent a great deal of time flying over this 'ere blue blob, but being the bird I am I've never thought to ask what it is. Would you mind telling me about it?" The girl leaped up, feeling so mature to give answers to a stranger. "Of course, I shall!" And she told the pelican all she knew about the ocean and its currents and its waves. Yet it wasn't long before the pelican became somewhat bored. "Laddy," cutting the girl off, "all that you describe I have already seen. I fly in the skies morning and night riding the breeze, but tell me what's it like? What does it feel like on your skin on a warm summer's day? Is it hard? Soft? Or somewhere in the middle? What's it like to be caught in a wave? Is there anything underneath? Deeper? What's down there?" With each question the pelican asked, the girl looked inside herself, finding nothing to answer him with. The pelican, seeing her silence, stopped his inquiry. "Weel, Laddy, thanks for your time. I'll see if I can find someone else." The pelican took to the wing and flew down the mountainside. Her eyes followed, in shocked silence. Down, down the bird went. She expected the bird to pull up soon, but to her surprise she say him go to where? Why, where else but to the ocean's edge!
Way, way down the girl say the people she had left in the water having a grand old time. They giggled as they were tossed by the waves, and she could see their wide-eyed and awed expressions, their smiles. "I can understand now, I can see," she said with sadness in her heart. She wanted desperately to return to the ocean. But all the way she had climbed! She could never take the long journey down, how all the people would laugh at her she thought, seeing her brought low. The weight of their eyes would be too much for her. She was alone. How foolish she felt, all her struggle and effort had taken her very far from where she had wanted to be all along. As she was about to despair, all of the sudden a might gust of wind swept over the mountain, catching her quite off balance. She stepped back to brace herself, yet felt the ground fall away beneath her. Looking over her shoulder her eyes met a wonderfully terrible sight: a cliff plummeting for what seemed like an eternity down into a blue pool. With a surprised yell she wasn't quiet sure if it was her own mid or something else, yet still and small there it was. Mustering up courage to again lean over the edge she listened again. She could hear the hushed cries of the people below. "Jump, Jump" Though like a whisper her heart began to race, her breath became heavy. Were they crazy? How could they expect her to just jump? "Jump. Jump." She looked again at the horizon, the light haze blurring the ocean with the sky. "Jump. Jump." Everything inside her screamed not to. Everything she had worked so hard for, all that she had given to be where she was, it somehow meant so much right now. Here heart was ripping, her pulse throbbing within her veins. "Jump. Jump." But I... "Jump. Jump." There must be some other way... "Jump. Jump." JUMP!
Eyes shut she shot into the waves... The water lightly tickled her skin. She felt the warmth of the current about her. She felt her hair dance in the waves. She opened her eyes with a hinted sting to see a thousand arms cradling her. Her eyes darted to see the wonders below the ocean's surface: colors of red and yellow and orange and green beamed brightly through the clear blue that stretched forever in every direction. Sunbeams played hide and go seek with each other, thousands at once. People all around explored the endless sea-floor, kicking in utter delight. She could see...it was ecstasy! Caught in amazement and exhilaration of what she say, it took a little while before the girl realized that she couldn't breath. Soaring to the surface, lungs bursting she splashed into the open sky. And with a deep breath that stretched down to her toe-bottoms she was filled with LIFE. "I understand now, I can BE!" The waves tossed her back and forth, and her heart giggled. She was free.
And the girl lived happily ever after, to no end.
P.S. this is an old post just thought it should go back up!
