Coastal Breeze RV Resort, Rockport, Texas
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what He is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind. They are seven years of famine. It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.” ~ Genesis 41:25-28 This dream is a foretelling of what’s going to happen in the next fourteen years, and oftentimes, we can’t even wait for fourteen days for God to reveal His plan to us. There is soooo much we can learn about patience in the Old Testament! It is so very hard in this time of instant gratification for us to wait on Him; so “anti-world”. Which is as it should be. In practice, we are living in the world, but as believers, we are not to succumb to its allures, because so much of our world teaches the opposite of what Scripture teaches us. Patience. Wait. Trust. Unselfishness. Mercy. Forgiveness. Love.
When our sons were in preschool, they used to sing a cute little song. I can’t share the melody, but I can give you the words.
Clean up time
It’s clean up time
Time to put away the toys
Stop making so much noise
It’s clean up time
It’s clean up time
And they’d sing it over and over until the work was done. 😊
I found myself quietly humming and singing it today.
We drove back to Padre Island National Seashore to pick up trash today. We had such grand plans! When we were here last week, we noticed all these yellow-coated, thin, flexible wire bundles all along the beach, so we imagined ourselves driving a bit, picking up wire and driving some more; thereby ridding the National Park beach of the unsightly, and dangerous to birds, stuff. Heroes of sorts! All we needed were some matching capes! (but those would just get in the way whenever we bent over…) We chose our day, when it was foretold that we’d have decent weather – and by decent I mean sunny and mid-sixties and no gale force winds – because we figured picking up trash along the beach while soaking up rays and being in nature would be a wonderful way to serve!
But there was no wire. And there was no decent weather. And there were no rays. And we found ourselves scrambling around in the Jeep for extra layers of clothing to put on. And we found ourselves serving in the damp and drizzle.
Do you suppose God was trying to dampen our pride a bit?
So what happened to the wire? Based on the Gulf infringing on the beach, I’d say it went back out to sea. We were near high tide today, and even though the tide change in the Gulf is pretty miniscule (like just a foot), the beach is flat, so the water comes up and covers the hard-packed sand.
We found ourselves having to drive in the deep sand much of the time. Not nearly as easy a drive as previously. We certainly were blessed to be here before! Because of the deep sand, we didn’t go the 20+ miles we did before. Instead, we stopped at about 7 ½ , when Blaine could find some solid ground to park on.
However. There were no gale force winds, and there were waves! And oodles of pelicans (unless it was the same ones circling the island over and over). And there was more trash than we ever imagined, even though it wasn’t yellow wire.
Along with one of the few cars that drove by.
God-made vs man-made.
Hmmmmm…..
Good sized fishies from the looks of it.
We tried and tried to get them out, but the log was simply too heavy, and the rope buried too deep.
Left me feeling like we didn’t finish the job . . . : (
Still. We filled six kitchen-trash-bag-sized National Park bags, as well as one of our own.
And we only covered about forty yards in two hours. Forty yards, on a beach that’s sixty miles long. Hardly seems worth it, doesn’t it? But what if other people who visited the Park each took on forty yards?
Or what if we all took a garbage bag and gloves with us when we visit a beach and spent a few minutes tidying up the area we’re in? What if all those fishermen we saw last time picked up their area while waiting for the fish to bite? What if Blaine and I had been prepared when we were here the other day? What if, when we checked in that first day, the Ranger had asked us if we’d like to tidy up some? What if they asked everyone that?
Or what if we all cut down on our plastic use? Is that even possible? For our part, Blaine and I have always re-used our plastic water bottles – refilling them from the sink. Over and over until for some reason, we no longer can. Considering how many times we use them (nearly every time we go out for the day), we know we’re saving a lot of bottles.
Here’s a few of the things we found:
Fishing pole
Large piece of canvas
Rope – all lengths and thicknesses
Shoes – mostly flip-flops, but others too, even heels
Toothpaste wrappers
Toothbrushes
Helium balloon ribbons
Bottle caps
Cans
Headbands
Medication syringes (the plastic kind, not needles)
Combs
Toilet brush
Styrofoam
Chip bags
A fire pit full of about a dozen burnt beer cans
Dozens of plastic bottles – including a gallon one
And tons of various unidentifiable pieces of plastic
It will be a few days until the next post. Start thinking about a short visit to Hawaii. 😊