if he takes on the sea...

...then why not ME?

When Caleb was not quite 2 years old, we took him to the Ocean for the first time. His toddler response to its beauty was to immediately and frantically strip off all his clothing and his shoes. Then he stood there on the frozen sand, barefoot and staring. It was so incredible to watch our tornado of noise and energy, suddenly still himself. When the first wave lapped at his toes he giggled and stared down at this new marvel. Soon he noticed how that first wave had friends, and how they kept coming! More and more. Some quiet and ticklish like the first. Others rushing at him, roaring like a lion and sending him backwards with a delicious fear. And he started to play with the Ocean. To chase it back. To rush at it and turn as it advanced on him. He lifted his chubby arm and hollered at it, his baby yell lost in the pounding surf. I watched him so closely that day, afraid his independent spirit would get him pulled out to sea but also amazed at how he saw things. I assumed, wrongly, that he was too young to understand. That his eyes were so locked on those harmless waves in front of him that he couldn't grasp how very BIG it's depths were. How impossible, how very futile it is for a man (much less a child) to strive against such unending, uncaring power.

He will be 8 in a few weeks and still fighting. He doesn't seem to notice us watching him, for his imagination has completely embraced the game. His altercation is between him and the Pacific and Caleb is as relentless as his opponent has been for eons. Little boy fists balled up tight. Eyes narrowed and glowering, he gets down low to look his enemy square in the face. He uses karate moves, builds a barricade of sand and dares those waves to cross the line. His taunts I cannot hear over the waves but I see his lips moving and marvel as he defiantly flings a tiny shovel full of wet sand towards the ever advancing tide.

This boy has such ambition and courage. Oh Father, when you ask us to, let us not be afraid to take on the waves of change in our lives-no matter how small we feel. no matter how big they look.