Just One

Luke 15:10 -- "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

The starfish story. Most of you have probably heard it and it usually applies to one person making a big difference in the face of overwhelming odds. I look at it in a slightly different light.  

I was first introduced to this story when I was writing for a corporate weekly paper that projected the progress of employees.  It was my charge to motivate the team and give them a little food for thought as they began their work week.  At the time, I sat down to write the story, I had no idea that one nearly identical had already been circulating around the web.  My personal inspiration came from a trip to the beach after a hurricane had blown through.  I present to you MY "starfish story".

Hues of orange light began to bleed across the dark purple of a sky that only hours ago, was raging with angry winds and heavy rains.  Waves that were charging the boardwalk and eating up the sand dunes like PAC-Man on steroids were now barely making it to the low tide mark, too lazy to come all the way inland.  

The calm after hurricane Gene was almost inconceivable. It felt as if I'd been completey thrown into another reality and in this one, hurricane Gene hadn't even come ashore.

I expected to be alone.  I'd made the trek out to Ponte Vedra Beach to exercise my shutter finger and attempt to get some good shots of the sunrise.  On most days, the beach is deserted at 5:30 in the morning.  Today, however, as I looked north along the coast line, an elderly woman was feverishly throwing things into the gentle surf.  I couldn't see what she was throwing from the boardwalk so I casually made my way in her direction.

Feeling the coquina and tattered sargasso wage war against the bottoms of my feet, I noticed that the beach was littered with what my kids call "mermaid's purses".  Shark or Ray eggs. I picked one up and held it up to the growing light against the horizon and could see a little creature wiggling around in it.  

AHA! THAT,S what she was doing.  She was tossing the would be sharks back into the ocean before they baked, unprotected from the hot, Florida sunshine.

I approached the woman and introduced myself.  "There is no way you are going to be able to save all these little sharks.  The beach is covered in them." I said this not to be mean to her, but because she was well into her 70's and I was kind of worried she was going to over do it.

"I know." She said to me. You could almost see her heart break as she picked another one up and looked at it. She gave it a good toss, like a pro Frisbee player. "But I can save THIS one."  She said.  She bent down again and snatched up another squirming little embryo. "And THIS one." ...again, a professional toss if I've ever seen one.

I had to smile.  How could you NOT?  I tossed with her. Picking up these really smelly little leather-like pouches with squirming little sharks inside, hoping beyond all reason that the surf wasn't going to just wash them back onto the shore.  

We talked some. [the woman and I, not the shark eggs]. I learned that she was one of the rare few who were born AND raised right here in the Sunshine State and that she'd been beach combing after hurricanes for years.  It was a GREAT morning. As the sun finally popped up over the horizon and lit up the beach, warming the sands and making the water sparkle, I headed back to the car to get home.  I didn't take any pictures...but man did I have a wonderfully colorful memory that would stay with me always.

On the way  home....I prayed. "Thank you Lord, I needed that little reminder."

Our walk through life on this planet can seem utterly pointless at times.  We try to reach others for Christ, only to be ignored, insulted, or rebuked.  ...or we scrimp and save to buy a home only to have the economy collapse and be foreced to file bankruptcy....or we work our entire lives to have a healthy body only to be diagnosed with cancer......But life really isn't pointless.  During the 70 years that the woman on the beach has been tossing unborn sea life back into the ocean....how many little sharks were added to what has become and over fished species?  Maybe just one....maybe a hundred.  Either way...she made a difference.  In the face of what seemed like a mundane and completely hopeless task, she rolled up her sleeves [or her capris in this case] and took action.

I like that this verse in Luke states how there is rejoicing over JUST ONE.  It matters.  Just one, really does matter. That one little shark tossed back into the ocean can later make more little sharks...and then THEY can make more little sharks. ....if this blog, or others like it, can encourage just one person...it matters.  If your service to Christ, in whatever capacity the Lord has lead you, reaches, encourages, teaches, or just touches ONE person, it matters.

Thank you, Lord.....I needed that little reminder.