Unexpected Tide

My iniquity is written upon the shores of life in deep bold letters; written there with my own failing hand.  Sin after sin, failure upon failure recorded for all to see and for me to ne’er forget. 

My back aches as I stoop yet again to scrawl another shortcoming into the white-hot sand.  This arduous undertaking continues throughout the day and on into evening. 

Because of the growing fatigue in my legs and lower back, I soon find myself unable to stand.  Undaunted, I continue my list while crawling down the seaside on hands and knees. 

Exhausted, my eyes grow heavy, and I drift off into an uneasy slumber.   

What seemed like moments later, I am startled awake by the violent splash of the unexpected tide against my tired body.  I struggle to my feet cursing the wind that I could not be granted even a brief rest.  Standing, I stretch my tight back in order to continue my laborious work. 

As I rub the sleep from my tired eyes, I look down at my feet.  To my astonishment, all that I had painstakingly written the night before was now gone.  All of my work, my penitence, my self-pity, and my effort to keep record of my wrongs went for naught! 

I would now have to start all over, again. 

“How could this have happened to me,” I shout into the salty air, as I strain to remember all I had written the day before.  My legs burn and my back hurts as I bend down to once again write in the sand. 

Head bowed, I rest my hands on the moist clean white sand, and I notice the warmth of the morning sun as it begins to tickle the back of my neck.  I lift my head to see a cloudless sky.  I feel the gentle ocean breeze blow against my face.  I see whitecaps breaking in the distance with the ocean’s surging power.  I sense the warm sand cradle my knees in a blanket of white. 

I look down again.  This time I notice that the beach had been made new.  It had been washed clean in the unexpected tide.  There was not even a faint trace of yesterday’s scars. 

The unexpected tide had always been there. 

The unexpected tide would return everyday to refresh and renew.  

I stood erect – a new man!  I too am made new!  I too have been washed clean!  I too have been forgiven in this Unexpected Tide!

“You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.”  -- 1 Corinthians 6:11

“Have mercy on my, O God,

                according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

                blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

                and cleanse me from my sin.”  -- Psalm 51:1-2