A lesson from the sea: The view from Glass Beach

“You make everything glorious. And I am yours. What does that make me?”

– David Crowder

Here’s what I learned today standing on a beach in Fort Bragg, California: Even if time can’t heal all wounds, it at least can make even the seeming dregs of our lives beautiful. Just add water and an overwhelming force.

While it may seem unbelievable in today’s more environmentally conscious society, for many of the decades of the 20^th century, the people of Fort Bragg threw their household garbage over the cliffs and into the sea. They threw their garbage and their old cars and appliances. And they threw their discarded glass bottles. Lots of them.

Although the city finally closed the area and began cleaning it up in the 1960s, there is a sparkling, magical remnant left from that time – “sea glass,” created by decade after decade of pounding waves that wore down discarded bottles into what today are small, smooth, colored “trinkets” that have been picked up by tourists and locals alike ever since.

Some guidebooks say that picking up the glass is no longer permitted, but we saw no signs on a recent visit and picked up a small handful.  We were not alone that day and, for what it’s worth, the beach show no signs of losing its treasure anytime soon.

It’s so easy, very often, to live and wallow in the garbage and the castoffs of our past. Old wounds, bad relationships, long-held grudges, and serious addictions and sins have been dumped on our minds and souls, seeking release and forgiveness and often finding none.

But there is redemption, another chance at renewal and life. It may take time (for beauty rarely comes in one brief shining moment, does it?) and it can’t happen just because we wish it so. Rather, we are called to immerse ourselves in the cool and ever-moving waters of God and then let the movement and the years create something new, something bold and colorful and shiny. Something that God can pick up and say, “this is mine…this is beautiful.”