The Final Sea

I love the ocean. I love the sound of the waves crashing down on the sand. I love the steady faithfulness of the tides. I love the way the water pulls back and forth around my ankles, burying my feet in the wet sand. I love the feeling of being so small in the face of something so vast. I love feeling so close to the One who called the oceans into being. The ocean comforts my heart somehow.

But I hate the ocean. I hate the separation it brings, cutting me off from people and places that my heart loves. I can stand on the shore, but I can’t see them. I can’t reach the other worlds my heart longs for. Because of what I love here and what I love on the other side, my heart feels stretched out and aches with the relentless pull in such different directions.

And yet, even with my heart stretched to near breaking, I remember the words of the Ocean Maker, when He said that He will make all things new and there will be no more sea. He said that “God Himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

No more crying. No more pain. No more separation. No more hearts stretched too thin. No more sea. In fact, the only remaining sea will be one that unites us. The last sea is the sea of crystal glass before the Presence of God. This one brings us together in worship at the foot of the throne of the Ocean Maker. There we will stand, surrounded by those our hearts cried out for, and we will worship the Lamb forever…together on that final sea.