Like the Sands on the Seashore

When God wanted to remind people of the vastness of his promises, sometimes he pointed them to the sands along the seashore (Genesis 22:17, for example). God wants to point you toward your beach, too.

In Israel’s case, God had made a promise that their nation would become so numerous, they would be as uncountable as the sands on the beach. God’s promises to you may not have anything to do with the numbers of descendants you will have, but I can assure you that God’s plans for you are beyond all measure. If nothing else, God wants to pour out his presence, his Spirit, on you without measure (John 3:34).

In God’s beachfront imagery, the sands are not a place of escape, a place to bury our heads. The sands represent God’s purposes. God’s first purpose in promising many children to Abraham was that Abraham would become the father of a great nation, the nation of Israel. God’s even bigger purpose, however, was that Israel would be a blessing to all nations, and that Abraham’s children would include spiritual children beyond number.

God wants us to think more expansively in terms of his promises, his presence, and his purposes for our own lives. We should think more expansively because God is the one who does immeasurably more than all we ask or even imagine! (See Ephesians 3:20.) God wants us to think more expansively in terms of the blessings he wants to pour out on us. He wants to pour out upon us far more blessings than we can contain. Why does God want to pour out more than we can contain? Because his intention is not that we contain it! God wants to pour out more blessings through us than we can imagine.

My family was privileged to go on vacation in Hawaii in the summer of 2008. Most of the vacation would be spent on the Big Island in a timeshare, but we added three or four nights in Oahu to the trip. I somehow, through an obscure website, found a relatively cheap rental house right on Kailua Beach on Oahu. It was sort of a rundown place, actually—clean but somewhat worn. It was also small for a home rental, two bedrooms and one bath. There was no air conditioning (though it was not really needed with the ocean breeze). But here’s the fantastic aspect of the rental: it was right on one of the world’s most amazing beaches!

Most houses along the beach and on either side of us were worth millions of dollars. An interesting thing about this vacation was that about four houses down from us, maybe five houses, they had guards in suits standing outside the house, looking over the beach. You could walk right by them because the beach was still open and public. Helicopters would fly overhead. What was going on in this multimillion dollar beachfront mansion that made our little rental look like a backyard shed? It turns out that those guards weren’t just rent-a-cops; they were Secret Service agents. The year was 2008, and a candidate for President of the United States, along with his family, was taking a little break from the campaign. I have to tell you, all politics aside, it was a bit of a thrill to know that my kids were just as welcome and able to play on that beach as the candidate’s kids, Sasha and Malia. Yes, it was a bit of a thrill to share that beach with the Obama family. How much more of a thrill that God shares his presence, his kingdom, with us as part of his family! The Obamas didn’t invite us in, but God does! God prepares a feast for us in his presence.

God is pointing you toward your beach, too. How vast his promises are to you! Will you receive them? You are a child of the King, included in the family God promised to Abraham. Take your place in God’s family—a place of measureless blessing! I encourage you: let God bless you, and let him bless through you beyond your wildest dreams.

Photo by Tomasz Popek on Unsplash.