The shoreline of Point Peninsula, located on a bay off of Lake Ontario in northern New York State, isn’t exactly what you’d consider a beach.  It’s mostly rocks – big ones – the kind you have to constantly rearrange your lawn chair on to avoid falling into a crevice.  My family loves it.  It’s our summer shoreline (at least a small piece of it) and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

But this year, something changed.  Strange tides or storms or other geological changes brought some chunky sand up in between our rocks.  It looked like a mixture of gravel and crushed shells – kind of hard on the feet. 

One morning a few weeks ago as I was enjoying a wonderful summer holiday with my family, I was jumping from rock to rock, watching the waves come in and rearrange the would-be sand in between them.  And then I saw it: a bright flash of blue.  I caught it before the next wave washed it away.  It was a cobalt blue piece of glass.  It made me wonder if there was other “beach glass” in the new landscape.  Sure enough, I found tiny pieces of green and amber and clear glass hiding amidst the broken shells and stones.  Treasures!  This was the start of a new vacation activity – searching for “gems” in the sand.  My sisters and I would wander the shoreline, excitedly picking up these miniscule, but beautiful shining bits of glass that looked like sapphires, emeralds, amber and diamonds.  It was fun to wonder where they had come from, which bottles or jars had been uncaringly tossed into Lake Ontario, churned by the waves, broken into tiny colorful fragments and deposited on our shore.

There were some obvious life lessons here, lessons about something beautiful coming after being pounded by waves and storms, or lessons about looking for the treasures in experiences that have been painful to walk through.   But one lesson kept coming to mind, one that makes the other lessons possible. 

As I held those pieces of glass in my hand, I was reminded that there are treasures and promises in God’s Word that I need to be just as diligent to seek out.    I should be just as excited and hopeful in searching my Bible for the riches God has waiting for me – the riches that bless and encourage  in the midst of crashing waves and changing landscapes, and delightfully surprise me when life seems ho-hum.

Our beach glass collection now sits inside a pretty jar in the window.  But the treasures I’ll find in God’s Word will always be in my heart – right where they should be – available before, during and after the storms.

I rejoice at Your word as one who finds great treasure.  Psalm 119:162

If you seek for her {wisdom} as silver, and search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.  Proverbs 2:4

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:21

I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.   Isaiah 45:3