God’s living hope
It’s a simple story, told twice and more. A young girl, walking along the beach discovers many starfish washed ashore. She picks one up and throws it back. She does it again and then, again. As she does, a man walks by and notices her. He says, “young lady, what are you doing?”
She replies, “I am tossing these starfish back into the ocean.”
He ponders and says, “my dear girl, there are so many. You will never make a difference.”
She pauses, looks him in the eye, picks up a starfish and throws it into the ocean. She looks at him and says, “I made a difference to that one!”
If we listen and think, there is a moral and nuance in the story. I believe it is about God and me and his kingdom and perhaps you, too. It’s a “we” story.
Golfers believe if a round is going badly, it will continue to go badly. The reverse is true as well. If it’s going well, it will continue. It takes years to learn a bad shot never prevents a good one. Bad golf is temporary.
The lesson is simple. In golf and life, one must possess a short memory. Should not our sin, our angst, our faithlessness also be temporary and forgiven?
1 Peter 1:3-5 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Peter reminds us we beget hope. Our life is under construction, temporary in sin, renewed in hope through the resurrection. And if this life and its trials are temporary, should not our forgiveness be permanent toward our neighbor and our self? Should we not rest in God’s abundant mercy and hope and treat our neighbor just the same?
Marking time, life’s thresholds enlighten us to our transitory existence. Each day, each moment we beget hope because his love does not fade away. In the resurrection’s shadow, how do we ever believe we have any power at all? If life’s travails and marathon miles do not humble us in reverent bow, God’s living hope brings us home.
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love” (1 Peter 1:6-8a).
I’m glad God threw me back in his ocean.
Deck Cheatham has been a golf professional for more than 40 years. He lives with his family in Dalton. Contact him at pgadeacon@gmail.com.