Blogging Through The Alphabet: "O" is for OCEAN

Week 15 of the challenge of Blogging Through the Alphabet Challenge by Through The Calm and Through the Storm and Adventures With Jude.  This week our letter is "O" and I chose the word OCEAN.

I grew up in El Paso, Texas so the ocean was a far piece.  I vaguely remember when I was five us vacationing in California and we visited the ocean, but if I am honest I have many more memories of Disneyland than I do of the Ocean.  The next exposure I would have to what I thought was an ocean as a kid was when I was 10 living in Mobile, Alabama (of course now I know that it was the Gulf of Mexico).  It wouldn't be until I was in my late 20's and moved to Chino, California that I really got to experience the ocean.  There are so many different venues to experience the ocean/beach up and down the coast of California.

I don't really remember when it hit me but I began to really treasure the ocean when I realized that it was a lot like God's grace.  It is continually in motion and constantly washes over us.  We don't have to wait forever, we don't have to swim out to it.  We just have to stand still and sometimes it will be a gentle wash and other times it will knock you over!  But it will always come.  In 1989 I moved to Dallas to get married and since that time, have only had one trip to the beach :-(  I have missed it, but there are times when I want to be reminded so I turn on my wave machine :-)  

I have also always enjoyed the mountains, so Colorado is not a bad place to be, but even here I prefer to spend time in the mountains at cabins that are on a river.  I just enjoy the sound of rushing water.  I have not been blessed to travel the world and there are many places I haven't been.  But out of the places I have been, Big Sur, California is one of my favorite places because you actually have the mountains and the ocean at the same spot.  Steve and I were able to go there on our honeymoon as one of our stops up the California coast.  I just remember thinking "this is heaven on earth" :-)  

That was long before the days of digital photos so I have none, but found this one on the internet.

Of the places I have visited I also enjoyed Kauai, again the mountains and the beach together, but you can't access the beach, except by boat on the mountainous side. 

But on the other side of the island there are a lot of pretty coves.

So all this talk about God's grace and oceans, what is grace?  The technical definition is "the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it." It is a gift from God because we are sinners.  None of us go through life without sinning.  Yet there is nothing any of us can do on our own to get forgiveness of our sins.  It only comes through the sacrifice that His son made on the cross.  When we accept Jesus as the Lord of our life and are baptized with him to become a new creation, we get the gift of the Holy Spirit and with that we receive grace.  Romans 5:15 "For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many."  That wonderful gift ensures that each time I sin, I confess and do my best to change and God's grace washes over me and my sins are forgiven as far as the east is from the west. (Psalms 103:12)

Guess I am just a visual person because all the snow we received last week also reminded me of this verse:

Anyway....got a little sidetracked from the beginning of my post.  But if you take a trip to the ocean anytime in the near future, put your toes in the water and close your eyes and then imagine when each wave hits you it is the grace of God and say a prayer of thanksgiving for His love for you!

I am sure others had better "O" posts than I did!  Go check them out here: