Greetings Dear Reader,
I have been thinking quite a bit lately of the summers of my youth when our family would pack up and journey to Folly Beach, South Carolina. My dad’s family had its roots there and we were grandfathered in as locals instead of being treated like the vast wave of summer tourist.
For weeks we would enjoy the sun, the surf, and
the seas bounty of shrimp and crab. There were summer friends and summer romances. I kissed my first girl there and had my first broken heart there. I walked the beach for hours amazed at the constant beauty and change. I made friends with dolphins and spied a shark or two.
What I recall today; what has haunted me most of late was waking up every morning and looking out the window and just across the dune at the shrimp boats plying their early morning trade. That was when I most loved walking the beach. The beach population was low and the sand was washed clean by the nights tide.
I would jump out of bed, pull on my boardies, and head across the dune to the long walk down the beach. Many times I returned just as my mum awoke and she would get coffee and insist that I walk down the beach with her. Those secret solitary walks held something very private and important though.
It was just prior to one of these summer ventures that I found my relationship with Christ. During those early walks of that year I began the conversation which carries through today. He was always there, listening, healing, forgiving, and available. Christ was never too busy for teenage boy frustrated with the world and full of deep questions to which he wanted simple answers. It was not until recently that I realized just how much of my life was shaped by my temporary sojourns in Folly Beach.
Folly has changed much and so have I. I have not been there but once in the last ten years. Finding that peaceful solitary time with God is more elusive and yet still as important. I find now before the sun rises while sitting in my study. I sometimes find it on my drive to work and late in the evening during my journey home. If I look for Christ to invest time in him, he is never too busy. The opportunity is always there, just over the dune.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a home owner. He brings new and old things out of his treasure store."
I have been thinking quite a bit lately of the summers of my youth when our family would pack up and journey to Folly Beach, South Carolina. My dad’s family had its roots there and we were grandfathered in as locals instead of being treated like the vast wave of summer tourist.
For weeks we would enjoy the sun, the surf, and
the seas bounty of shrimp and crab. There were summer friends and summer romances. I kissed my first girl there and had my first broken heart there. I walked the beach for hours amazed at the constant beauty and change. I made friends with dolphins and spied a shark or two.What I recall today; what has haunted me most of late was waking up every morning and looking out the window and just across the dune at the shrimp boats plying their early morning trade. That was when I most loved walking the beach. The beach population was low and the sand was washed clean by the nights tide.
I would jump out of bed, pull on my boardies, and head across the dune to the long walk down the beach. Many times I returned just as my mum awoke and she would get coffee and insist that I walk down the beach with her. Those secret solitary walks held something very private and important though.
It was just prior to one of these summer ventures that I found my relationship with Christ. During those early walks of that year I began the conversation which carries through today. He was always there, listening, healing, forgiving, and available. Christ was never too busy for teenage boy frustrated with the world and full of deep questions to which he wanted simple answers. It was not until recently that I realized just how much of my life was shaped by my temporary sojourns in Folly Beach.
Folly has changed much and so have I. I have not been there but once in the last ten years. Finding that peaceful solitary time with God is more elusive and yet still as important. I find now before the sun rises while sitting in my study. I sometimes find it on my drive to work and late in the evening during my journey home. If I look for Christ to invest time in him, he is never too busy. The opportunity is always there, just over the dune.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a home owner. He brings new and old things out of his treasure store."
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Our past makes us and helps us grow yor time at the beach ha shaped some of the beautiful person that you are now Aramis, do nit le go of that but continue to grow from your time as a child let the excitment live and know that Christ still has time for you.
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