Dear Congregation,
Maybe I’ve been spending too much time around water this summer, or perhaps the heat is getting to me, but I keep thinking about the movement of water, how the waves are so continuous.
When they’re huge, the surfers (yes, we have surfers in NY!) enjoy them at their peak, moderate swimmers are challenged by them right where they’re about to break, and small children are as thrilled as the surfers with the flat rush of water at the shoreline. I remember, as a child, standing in the water as the waves came in and enjoying the pull of the wave as it rushed back out to sea, the pull on my feet as they sank into the ground with the force. The power of it was amazing and a bit scary.
Waves are continuous and while they may seem to end at the shoreline, they only briefly touch base there and immediately go back to form more waves. The first waves ever are these same waves, still just doing their thing.
And I’m thinking about the ripples that form in water. We’ve all experienced dropping a stone into water and seeing the ripples, the impact, getting less obvious as the ripple, the impact, spreads out. We assume it ends there but really, we don’t know what’s going on below the surface, what subtle changes that ripple, that impact, that action, has put into place.
Perhaps not the most dignified image, but I’m envisioning Jesus being plopped into the sea of humanity and the resulting ripple, the impact, which led to us, the Body of Christ. As disciples, we are entrusted with continuing that ripple, that impact.
Sometimes, though, we may feel we have no impact, feel we’re not doing enough, not quite hitting the mark. We may feel we are just not important enough or influential enough to make a difference. I feel like that often.
I wonder if perhaps we sometimes simply go for too much, or we don’t value the little things, the little impacts we bring about, the little ripples.
That one little pebble of kindness you plop into the water does matter; it matters more than you can ever imagine. We are not, ever, too insignificant to have a ripple effect, an impact. Remember that the little children at the shoreline are just as thrilled as the surfers riding the big waves.
Let’s all try to keep that water rippling with our impact and remember we are all part of that first great wave. Sink your feet in and feel the pull.
Peace, love, joy, and cool waters,
Deacon Denise