Seashells & Exceedingly Abundantly More

God’s power at work within us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20, CEV

broken shell, broken dreams

Most of the beaches I’m familiar with have fine soft sugar sand and very few shells—just a few teeny tiny ones or seldom a broken-up dime sized one. We become accustomed to broken treasures and dreams on this earth, don’t we?

These sugar soft shores were on the banks of a fisherman’s town called Destiny. But once, God sent me away from that safe haven to the shores of a beach town called Captivity. A place known worldwide for it’s sea shells. I went with a group of fellow widows of heroes who knew, collectively, more about broken dreams and shattered hearts than a group of young women should ever know.

hunting for shells, alone together

At the retreat, God highlighted one woman to me. I could tell she wanted to be alone but not alone. Me too. So I thought I’d go to the beach with her and we could be alone together.

We decided we’d go hunting for sea shells.

Sea shells are a currency of joy. Little bits of wonder. Fashioned somehow in the depths of the ocean by God’s creativity and power. Who doesn’t love to hunt for seashells?

We arrived to discover that the shores were far from sugar soft. They were actually quite painful. (Captivity is always painful.) My feet were still tender from wearing socks all that Colorado winter, and here I was in Florida, walking on the broken bones of clams and oysters. Walking with my own weary bones that felt just as broken.

the motherlode

My friend, more adventurous than I, dug into the sand and realized there were loads of whole intact shells maybe just an inch deep below this broken jagged sand. I’ve never seen anything like it. The deeper and wider she dug into the sand, she unearthed more and more intact whole seashells. Not even mixed with sand. Just bucket loads of pure shells!

She began to dig with joy and wonder because, truly, we’ve never seen or even imagined such a thing! Thousands of shells, just right there in our palms! And everywhere we dug for shells (deeper or wider), there were just more and more and more!

Suddenly, we were five-year-olds, full of laughter and joy at the treasure we found. As we dug deeper and wider to find out how much more was there, it was so clear in my spirit… We were living Ephesians 3:20—

“Glory to God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, immeasurably beyond, more than all we can ask or imagine! According to His power that’s at work within us!”

Sometimes on the road to Destiny, we take a detour in the desert of Captivity. As with the Israelites wandering in the desert and headed to the Promised Land, God sometimes allows us to enter into desert places where we can clearly see His signs and wonders and love. Even in a place of captivity, God shows us that we can scoop up in our hands the abundant joy of our true freedom in Christ.

exceedingly abundantly more

More than we can ask or imagine! Wow. I have a pretty big imagination, or so I thought. But whatever I can dream up or imagine is like the teeny tiny or broken shells on my familiar shores, where I imagined I might only find a few little treasures. But this! This was unthinkable to me before I saw it with my own eyes! Exceedingly abundantly immeasurably more than anything I’d ever dared to imagine.

Even the biggest imagination is so pale in comparison to God’s!

Our God is able to do more than we imagine! He can do, not just a few shells more than we imagine, not just a few handfuls more, but entire shores full and more than we imagine! He can do storehouses in the depths of the ocean more—exceedingly abundantly and immeasurably more than we ask, think or imagine! According to His power at work within us.

the abundant power of Holy Spirit

And why does He gives us this power? Let’s look at Paul’s prayer just prior to Ephesians 3:20. Paul prays, “I pray you’ll have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” We actually need power to know His love because His love is so exceedingly beyond anything we have imagination for!

May you be empowered by Holy Spirit to know the exceedingly deep, abundantly long, immeasurably wide love that Christ has for you.

Today, you might only have a teeny tiny imagination of His love.  Maybe you think He just has a few leftover broken shells of love for you. That’s not a reflection of His love for you. That’s a reflection of your broken bones and broken dreams and limiting beliefs. Put your tiny imagination of His love in your palms like an offering and pray:

May the Lord empower us today to know His unimaginable love.

Til next time… Toodle-loo and peace be with you.