This last week our friend, Kris Moye, came to St. Simons for a visit.  You will be hearing more about her visit soon, but I wanted to write today about one of the things we spent a lot of time doing while she was here.  Waiting for our ship to come in.

Now, we weren’t really waiting for OUR ship, but we did spend lots of times watching ships go by in St. Simons Sound.  We walked on Driftwood Beach and the St. Simons Pier, both of which are dominated by the overturned cargo ship in the channel.  One day we were coming over the Sidney Lanier Bridge and saw a big cargo ship leaving the Brunswick Port.  So we stopped and stood on the pier under the bridge waiting for our ship to go under the bridge.  Then, when we got back to St. Simons Island, we watched it go by the pier.

 

We watched a dredger at work.  Then we watched a crane going around the overturned cargo ship.  We saw a fisherman checking crab traps along the shore with several pelicans trailing him, hoping for cast-offs.  A tug pulling a barge captured our attention and we watched it as we stood on the Jekyll Island pier.  Tom was the first to figure out it was carrying big steel pipes.  We wondered where it was coming from and why it would choose the open ocean instead of the protected inland waterway.

While we were waiting for our ship to come in, we stood patiently watching and talking.  I can’t remember a day when I spent so much time watching ships.  Tom and I are surrounded by water and ships every day here on St. Simons but we rarely take the time to watch them move so far.

I think God wishes we would take more time waiting and watching.  Not for our ship to come in, but so that we can see and recognize what he is doing in us.  God constantly reminds us to be still – to watch and pray – to quiet our spirits and hear his voice.  But we are in such a hurry all the time that we rarely take the time to be still.

God asks us to take the time to see what he has done.  He asks us to notice the beauty around us and the blessing we receive daily.  Instead of hurrying, he reminds us to slow down, to watch, to wait, and to be still.