Mark Sorensen I had a friend tell me once about a problem he had with one of his kids when they visited the beach for summer vacation. He shared that the entire way spent driving to the coast, all his little boy could talk about was the one thing he wanted to accomplish while at the beach: finding a sand dollar. That was it! The first day there, he said they spent hours scouring the beach for sand dollars but to no avail. Instead, the little boy settled for various shells of different colors with which he quickly filled up both hands.
Then, it happened.
The little boy spotted a sand dollar drifting up to the shore and slowly drifting back out toward sea! It’s what the little boy did next that surprised his father. His son began to cry. Not quite understanding where the tears came from, his father encouraged him to get out there and pick up that sand dollar. However, there was one small problem: the little boy held out his hands filled with shells and said, “Daddy, I can’t! My hands are already full!”
As Susan shared the message in last Sunday’s kickoff to our series on 1 Peter, I couldn’t help but think about this story when she asked us all to hold out our hands. How easy it is to allow shame, regret, worry and fear to fill our heart and hands when, the truth is, God has something so much greater that’s just within reach of wherever we find ourselves today: the love of Jesus and the gift of His Holy Spirit. That’s the Good News that Peter had the early church remember as he began this letter to them in chapter one.
True then, STILL true today. Rest in that promise, friend.
