Starfish

I heard someone tell a story once of his family vacationing at the beach. His kids were running up and down the shore collecting seashells. His youngest son loved the shells he found, but on his “bucket” list that day was one thing: finding a starfish. As the day was ending, his son stood victoriously with his hands filled with shells he had found when, suddenly, there it was floating directly in front of him – the starfish he had been looking for. The only problem? Both hands were holding shells he had just recently found. As the boy began to cry, his dad encouraged, “Reach out! Grab it! It’s right there!” His son responded, “But daddy, I can’t! My hands are already full.”

How true is that story in relationship to the guilt we can carry in our own lives, right? Last Sunday, I spoke on a Different Kind of Prison. While Joseph had found himself thrown into in a well by his brothers at one point, and later serving time in prison for something he didn’t do, those were literal prisons. In each circumstance, I love that the writer of Genesis added the following words: “yet, the Lord was with him.” However, Joseph’s brothers lived in a different kind of prison. For almost 22 years, they lived within the imaginary walls of a prison cell made from the mistake they had made selling Joseph into slavery and blaming themselves for the supposed death of their brother. Yet, little did they know in Genesis, chapter 42, that Joseph had a starfish ready to give them: his forgiveness.

God makes the same available to us today as well, right? Hear this. Just as the Lord was with Joseph, He was also with the brothers in the midst of their shame and guilt. And? He is with each of us today. The only thing necessary is for us to let go of the shells of guilt, shame, and pride, and, instead, take hold of the grace our Father has prepared to hand each and every single one of us.

I love what King David says in Psalm 103:

“as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Let me ask: What are you carrying today? I pray that it’s the grace and mercy that God is making available to you right now, this very moment. If not? I pray you would have the strength to let go of that which is holding you down, and open up those hands to take hold of that which God is ready to give you.