Jogging on the beach today presented yet another insight into HaShem’s teachings. It amazes me how many lessons can come from the same path each day. . . How our eyes become more open to His daily teachings. . .

As I was prayer-jogging, I was struck by the beauty of what I thought at first were transparent jelly fish on the beach. However, as I came closer and could observe more carefully, it became apparent these were really clear, brilliant pieces of ice that had broken off from the larger shelf of ice that had lined the shoreline earlier this week. Now these ice chunks were glowing brilliantly like large, varied shaped diamonds as they glistened in the bright winter sunshine.

Farther up the shore where the tide is stronger the clear, sparkly ice gems were scattered amidst many other ice-like structures, some large and translucent, some small and transparent, whole sections of them being pushed to the shore as each wave came in. As I rounded the corner to where the river meets the ocean, a place of gentler waves, a thick thatch, almost as I would imagine was in Yeshua’s manger cradled the many chunks of ice, some large, some small, some clear, some cloudy, all gently moving in and out with the sea’s rhythmic tide along the tidal river’s edge.

Just days earlier this whole area had been solidly frozen at the ocean’s edge. The sea had been constant, despite the winds, the tides steady, coming and going with order, eventually breaking down the hard ice to mold it into sculptured prisms of brilliant light, the result this show of many different ice sculptures, the most malleable ice becoming the most brilliant.

We are as that hard ice shelf, stubborn at times, resistant to HaShem’s plan for us, impatient, unaccepting, cold and hard hearted. Our Abba meets us where we are, some very tough personalities just as the ice most exposed to the rougher seas, back and forth, day after day, gradually smoothing out the roughness to translucence to clarity. Some are as where the river meets the ocean or as in the river, less strident in our obstinance, our lack of discipline, our coldness to Him when He wants us to do something we do not want to do, but all needing Him and His patient, steadfast sculpting of our beings.

If we allow ourselves to come to Him, to yield to His will, our Abba molds each of us into gems of light, His light. The process is sometimes a long one, sometimes more tumultuous, as some of the ice is still heavy and thick, not yet clear and bright as the honing continues. The coldness of the season is as the winter of our discontent, our disobedience, at times. But our Abba cradles us through the transformation, just as the thatch rhythmically washing to and fro along the shore cushions the ice flow as it breaks apart. We may start very hard hearted and over time through our seeking Him, we soften, we obey, we accept, we change, just as the formations change shape from those lying at the open ocean’s edge to those along the river. We respond to His firm Hand as needed just as the firmness of the open sea, to His more gentle corrections as we become more pliable, like the cushioned ice along the river’s edge. Just as the river flows to the sea, so too do we seek Him.

As the seasons will change, and the brilliant ice will evaporate into a oneness with Him, we will someday become ready to move from the river to the ocean, able to flow with the tide rather than fight against it, minds and spirits molded to serve and obey, hearts softened and open to His truth, from a place needing His protection to a place where we will walk even more closely with Him.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane