Sebastian Inlet State Park, Melbourne Beach, Florida
John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ~ Matthew 3:4 I know you’re probably reading this and wondering why Matthew included these details, and there are a myriad of things I could share about it, but have neither the time nor the space to do so. So let’s stick with the basics. John dressed thus because it’s the clothing of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah (II Kings 1:8) and John was fulfilling the prophecy that Elijah would come before the Messiah (Malachi 4:5). The angel tells John’s father who he will be before he’s born (Luke 1:17), and Jesus also confirms John’s purpose (Matthew 11:13, Matthew 17:12-13). The modest garments and food allowed people to see Jesus, rather than the ‘showy attire’ of the current leadership in Israel. It allowed the people to see past the rituals and rules and also kept them from putting John on a lofty pedestal that he didn’t belong on. His ministry was to get people to see and admit to their sin and point the way of salvation; not puff himself up.
There are no churches around for miles, so we watched the past two messages from our home church, The Chapel in Green, which got us caught up to today’s messages. I highly recommend the series they’re doing as we, and they, move through the Book of Matthew. (I’m letting Pastor Mike stay ahead of me so I can learn stuff to share with you. 😊) You can catch them on YouTube if you’re interested.
Besides getting caught up on church, we basically lollygagged around, taking a short bike ride on a labeled bike trail, which we struggled to actually ride on because of deep sand and narrow street tires.
Once we made it to the end, rather than turning around, we chose the sidewalk and biked back to check out the pier we visited yesterday. Today, we saw a turtle that may have been a Green Turtle and relatively small sting ray. We also watched a bevy of boats maneuvering in and out of the inlet, and hundreds of people enjoying the beach and protected waters in various ways.
Once we were done starring into the blue-green depths, we sauntered over to the Sebastian Fishing Museum. It’s small, but interesting, and they have a 20 minute video you can watch about the history of fishing here. We did.
Another not-so-awe-inspiring day today for anyone but us. Maybe tomorrow will capture your interest. 😊