I’m walking the beach, getting exercise. I pass a few people here and there, and then I find myself on a lonely but beautiful stretch of beach. I turn around and head back the other direction. I notice a colorful shell partly in the sand. I pick it up and find that it is not perfect. It has a hole in it. That hole represents what killed the bivalve in the first place. A few more steps and I see a similar shell. I pick it up, and I see it is lacking a hole but it has barnacles on part of it. I throw it to the side. A few more steps and I find another. This time there are no imperfections. No holes, no barnacles. No chips or cracks. Even though I am supposed to be walking for exercise, I have to stop and take the time to pick up and keep hold of this magnificent creation.
I then realize there are innumerable shells everywhere along that stretch of beach. People have bags and are picking up shells. I see them picking some up and then discarding them to the side. They are chucking the imperfect ones as I did.
This struck me as a comparison of how if Jesus walked this beach He would look for the most perfect of shells. Even though shellfish are not kosher, Jesus has opened salvation up to the Jew and the Gentile. After His sacrificial death on the cross, both Jew and Gentile can believe on the Name of Jesus and be saved. These that believe that Jesus took on their sin at the cross become born again. They form the true church. They are believers, saints, new creations in Christ Jesus,
In order for that shell to show up on the beach, the animal inside of it had to die. This usually happens when its protective shell is compromised by an attacking foe drilling a whole into it and eating the animal. If we find the side of the shell that has this hole in it, we reject it. We chuck it. If we find the perfect side of the shell, we keep it as a treasure.
We can see how Jesus sees us as this perfect side of the shellfish. Washed clean in His blood that He shed, we are beautiful in His sight. The sinful nature is still there, just like the imperfect side of the shell is still on that beach. Jesus just sees the beautiful side, the new creation side. If we sin, as we do, He cleanses us of that sin as we confess it to him.
To even get up on that beach, the creature had to die. When we believe on Jesus, we are born again. We become a new creature. He had to die on the cross to be raised up on the third day. That is what gave us the hope of being on that beach when He arrives. Otherwise we would be in the sea drowning in our sin. He is coming back for His own soon.
Be a shell that is worthy of being picked up on that beach so that we may hear the words of our Master, Jesus Christ say: “well done good and faithful servant”.
Ron Butts
11/17/2011
