Sssh the sea says
Sssh the small waves at the shore say, sssh
Not so violent, not
So haughty, not
So remarkable.
Sssh say the tips of the waves
Crowding around the headland’s
Surf. Sssh
They say to people
This is our earth,
Our eternity.
(Rolf Jacobsen from Norway)
 
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar.... (Lord Byron)
 
Someone also said:” No eloquent words of a man can replace the pathless forest or the quietness of a rock.”
 
When I am at the ocean the thought occurs to me that these waves have been rolling in for a long time and will be rolling in a long time after I am gone and even, perhaps, after humankind has long been gone. The timelessness of the sea, the vastness of the sea, the power of the sea  create a humility and a quiet that is larger than all of our questions about the meaning of the world put together. Perhaps we would do better to listen to the quiet rather than dispute and argue about the meaning of the world. Perhaps, the meaning is simply there in its ancient power and beauty.  Perhaps, the meaning is simply  in the motion and the depth and the silence of the deeps. Perhaps, the sea speaks of the meaning of God. But we don’t always have to put  that speech into words.
 
Psalm 19 says: The heavens are telling the glory of God, the sky proclaims its builder’s craft. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.”
 
The sea is old. Standing on the shore we  share, perhaps, some of the same thoughts of the ancient ones: wonder, awe, fear, littleness, loneliness, what’s beyond the horizon(?). But  we lack reverence. We think of ourselves as remarkable in our accomplishments as human beings. Rightly so, perhaps.  But the sheer age and consistency of waves rolling in and touching sand provokes humility.  The age of the steamboat and travel by canal have long since faded as will most everything else. Good sermons fade.  This is not a negative thought. It is simply humility, honesty, a look at eternity.

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