There's a fire in the sky this morning as day breaks glorious on the Gulf of Mexico and the waves never tire of declaring God's faithfulness and endless love. And there's a marvelous peace - a peace with God knowing that He is in control of every breaking wave and that He has removed my sins as far as the East is from the West and laid them to rest in the great deep. He Himself has truly removed all barriers between me and Heaven - the heart of a God so vast (my God box has exploded again as I ponder that He holds the universe in the palm of His hand). This seemingly endless ocean, mesmerizing, beautiful, only an image, a fragment of an expression of the love of God poured out.
My 3 year old picks up shells in the early morning where the faithful waves meet their Creator's barrier. Small, large, broken, variegated - he doesn't care. He finds beauty, a treasure in the smallest broken piece as much as the intact one lying right next to it. I'm reminded again of the love of a Father who sees even and especially those who have only tiny fragments of themselves left, so broken by wave after wave of life that they feel beyond notice, beyond worth in the midst of what looks like a shoreline of whole people, those who seem to have it all together. Maybe that's why we're called to have faith, eyes like a little child, a child who prefers the sizes and shapes and colors of broken things, sees the beauty and value of the broken thing and wants that. After all He's the God who leaves the 99 for the lost, broken one. And I marvel that He who treads the sea, who looks down upon earth whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers, He bends low in His vastness to receive praise and even enter into relationship with the grain of sand that I am. Is this for real? Why engage so small, so insignificant a thing? Because He's a God of small things, delighting to fill them with His greatness - He is the only Significant and all else receives significance from Him. 
Job 38:4- “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?
“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.
The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the deepest darkness?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.
“What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?
from whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?
“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs?
Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?
“Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?
Who gives the ibis wisdom or gives the rooster understanding?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?
Waves break over and over, one right after another - some heavy, strong enough to knock one over, others small, just noticeable. Waves can be fun to play in, riding one change or variable - especially if you go with the flow and let them carry you, but if you're swimming or fighting against them to move out from under their breaking, it can wear down your strength fast. Having one wave after another crash over you, relentless, saps you of all strength. Then, as strength ebbs, fear enters in. Will this ever end? I can't go on like this! Desperation to get out, to have a break - peace, relief from the crashing, the weight and power of one wave after another beating down till you have nothing left, weary wondering if God will come through and when. Will there be anything left of you when He does? And if the waves hit long and hard enough...what will life even look like if you do make it out of this alive? The waves, they crash hard in the shallows, along the shoreline where it seems safest. We feel like can fight the onslaught better in our own strength, on our own feet in the shallows, but if you can get out, you have two choices - to run away and stay on dry ground, away from the risk, away from the everlasting fluctuations and changes or you can go deeper. Deeper where the waves still come but more gently or with greater ability to ride above them rather than be crushed under them, where one must rely on ANOTHER's strength, rising and falling in His arms cause your feet can't quite touch the ground but faith runs deep and peace means abiding in what you know of His strength, laying aside fears of what lies beneath the waves, where the waves may carry you or how the changes may shape you. For, He is the great potter, giving the waves and changes for a purpose, shaping with intention not on a whim or with carelessness. We know this to be true. We have seen it. Experience has proved it. Yet, how many times like Peter do we forget that His hand is securely upholding us ON TOP OF THE WAVES? - it's really happening right here, right now, but we look down, around, don't see it, give in to fear and come crashing down. We see something big coming or are in the midst of such change and uncertainty that we look down rather than up and get overwhelmed by the waves once more. Are you there? Tumbled under, scared, overwhelmed, needing to see some blue sky and smoother waters? He's there too. Reach up, recenter your heart on TRUTH. Circumstances lie. Our emotions play games with us, but His TRUTH abides forever. He hasn't abandoned you, lost track of where you're at or what you need. As the song says - "when you can't see His hand, trust His heart" and look up.
Remix version of song
Beautiful violin solo rendition
Story behind the hymn
O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
1. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
2. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches over His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth over them from the throne!
3. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
