Yes, every week I am at the beach. It is just a fun place to be and I love to watch the sunset. Since I live on the west coast, it is the sunsets one waits for. And this sunset was gorgeous as usual. I always try and spend a little time on the beach before the sun sets. I watch the birds and listen to the waves.

This time was no exception. I am a birdwatcher so I always look at the birds. There are some little shorebirds called plovers, snowy plovers to be exact, and they run in a small flock on the beach. They dip their beaks into the sand for whatever little morsel was left behind from the waves. They are fun to just watch.

As the wave goes out, the plovers, mostly the whole flock, runs out on the wet sand and starts finding food. They may even go so far as to get their feet wet in the water. But moments later the next wave comes rushing into the beach and it sends the plovers running back as fast as they can go. They do not fly much while feeding like this. Now if you want to watch something funny, watch the plovers run out to the ocean on their short little legs and then, watch as they scurry back away from the incoming wave. Every once in a while one of them will have to fly inland a bit to keep out of reach of the rolling waves.

I got to thinking. Plovers are just like us. We may say we are Christians and go to church but sometimes we venture out into the wavy world as far as we dare. We even get our feet wet with sin a bit. And then we hurry back to Jesus to protect us and keep us from harm and away from all the bad things. Jesus will always take us back. Come to Him with a true and contrite heart and He will bring you into His safety. There might be rough spots, but He is with us, protecting us.

Now the plovers do it because they are feeding. That’s the way God designed them. As for us, we had other ideas about what we should do. Sin entered the world. We try to go to sin and not get caught up in it. But when we do, Jesus is there ready to help and to save. And one day, Jesus will change us and make us new again. Then we won’t want to go play in the waves of sin.