Time and Tides on the Western Shore

Time and Tides on the Western ShoreThe author has stood at times gazing with amazement and awe at the vast expanse of the ocean extending before him as far as the eye can see and far beyond the reach of his imagination. There lies the great giant ocean calm and peaceful like a placid lake. But not for long! With the shrug of a wakening monster the sea moves relentlessly toward the shore with ever enlarging breakers and with ever more deafening roar. On comes the tide. It lays hold on a

The author has stood at times gazing with amazement and awe at the vast expanse of the ocean extending before him as far as the eye can see and far beyond the reach of his imagination. There lies the great giant ocean calm and peaceful like a placid lake.

But not for long! With the shrug of a wakening monster the sea moves relentlessly toward the shore with ever enlarging breakers and with ever more deafening roar. On comes the tide. It lays hold on a large ocean liner and lifts it five, ten, twenty or more feet, then quietly lowers it in its berth. What tremendous power; enough to toss about a large ship; yes, power enough to do all the work needed by mankind if it were only harnessed. But the power is not in the ship it is in the ocean tide drawn forward by the strong arms of the moon.

The author thinks of himself as but a piece of drift-wood picked up and tossed forward and upward by the surging tide till, having spent its effort, the receding tide deposits again the drift-wood in the sand from whence it came. He knows full well that the power is in the tide and not in the wood. Realizing his own nothingness he would say with the Apostle Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”