Oak Island, a quaint little beach away from tourist attractions and shopping malls, was our safe haven (it's no surprise that the recent blockbuster "Safe Haven" was actually filmed at South Port, a town just a few miles up the road). We feasted on the delicious gourmet... well, southern gourmet... food of my mother, enjoyed easy conversation with natives and friendly visitors, made a cozy little home in the coffee shop (go figure), caught up on books that had been sitting lonely on the shelf all year, and rested soul, mind, and body.
The familiarity of Eden hovered over each day of our mini paradise- and you know that it would not have been so without a lesson or two from the Creator.
One of my very favorite vacation traditions is to take scraps of bread to the beach to feed the seagulls. I'm not quite sure why attracting a clan of poop-filled bombers to float over my head thrills me so, but it does. So this week, after two days of feeding them, I had high hopes of becoming at least an acquaintance to these little fluttery fellows (and yes, I know that their brains are the size of a pea... don't forget the mustard seed).
Anyway, on day three, I flung just enough scraps out to reel them in and then waited. Whether or not they recognized the bread bag in my hand, they lingered, growing more impatient by the minute. A few of the birds even began to shove each other, as if I would reward them for being closest to me (there is plenty to go around, you crazies!). At the peak of my entertainment, I lifted a small pinch of bread up to the sky and taunted them to come get it. About half began to hover closer, gliding toward my hand and then flinging themselves back out, as if knowing the evil in the human heart. Finally, one brave little bird cascaded down and ate right out of my hand. It was amazing!
Lesson: Giving and receiving are both beautiful pleasures that God has set into the hearts of men as a revelation of His nature. However, when we begin to view the gifts we receive as "rights" or "entitlements," He may show His love to us by withholding those gifts for a season, simply to draw us in, where we can once again see His face and be reminded of the heart of the Giver, and in doing so, be transformed another degree into the image of His glory. After all, who can love without seeing, feeling, and experiencing Love? The thought that this perfect God draws us in, not out of curiosity or amusement at our simplicity, but out of true, passionate, Fatherly love and a pure desire to enjoy authentic communion with us is beyond our understanding. But what a joy it must be for our Father when we come to Him, asking of the only One who has the power and authority to give every good gift!
"You make known to me the paths of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
-Psalm 16:11
