Imagine you’re on El
Castillo Beach, in Tulum, Mexico. It just so happens to be ranked among the top
ten most beautiful beaches in the world. The crystal clear turquoise water
tickles your toes as they’re slowly buried beneath the smooth, white sand. Your
sun-kissed skin takes in the warmth of the sun’s rays as they dance across your
back, and just ahead you can see the ancient ruins of an old Mayan Port, above
the miles of limestone cliffs wrapped in gorgeous tropical vegetation. As you
stroll down the coastline, your feet leave a trail of footprints in the sand behind
you. The footprints seem pretty insignificant compared to the beauty that
surrounds you, so much so that you hardly even take time to recognize them.
Pretty soon they’ll be lost with the tide anyway.
In a lot of ways those
footprint are like our sin. Sometimes they’re nice and neat, and you can make
out their outline perfectly. Other times, they’re not so neat, the edges are
smeared, and their shape is hard to make out. Regardless, their imprint in the
sand tells you they’re there. Much like you might fail to recognize the
footprint you leave in the sand when you’re so absorbed in the scenery around
you, sometimes we neglect to identify, or rather acknowledge and accept our sin
because we too are absorbed in the “scenery” around us. We get caught up in what
society wants us to make of us, lost in the ways of the world, and even
engrossed in the situations of those around us.
Have you ever really thought
hard about what would happen if the tide didn’t come in each night and wash all
those prints away? Part of the beauty in waking up early to walk the shore is
the untouched sand, looking rather picturesque before everyone heads to the
beach for the day and it becomes just as unsettled as before. The beach
wouldn’t be nearly as beautiful if it were littered with prints! We often don’t
give it a second thought, but we trust and count on the fact that the tide will
come and wipe the shore clean. It would be crazy to wait up, watching and
waiting to make sure it came. Instead, we have a little something called FAITH.
Just like we trust the tide
will come, even if we don’t see it, we can have full faith in knowing that when
we trust in God, our sins will be wiped clean. The tide is constant and
reliable; there’s no picking and choosing the days that it’ll come. Similarly,
our God is constant and reliable, and his grace is as never ending as the tide.
No matter how many “prints” we’ve accumulated, He wipes our shore completely
clean. Not only is it wiped away, but there’s not a single hint of evidence
remaining as to what was there previously. One of my favorite verses, 2
Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” In trusting and
believing in what Christ did for you, you are made BRAND NEW.
Now as you walk along the
stunning shoreline of El Castillo Beach, maybe you’ll remember to glance behind
you at those footprints every once in a while. When you do, recall the
unbelievable transformation that occurs each night, and the wonder that remains
in the morning when the beautiful beach is made new, just like you.
Xoxo,
Mary Kate
