Why We Stare At The Ocean: Comfort In The Vastness

Vacation From Worry

This week I’m going on vacation. I’m going to set aside worries about work that needs to be done, politics that hurt more than help, my kids climbing the hill towards adulthood, that tree that needs to be pruned, that rattle in the car that needs to be checked, and the half dozen other things I worry about forgetting to worry about. Worry, or its more responsible cousin, “planning”, is a beast whose appetite is never satisfied.

But, this morning I am just going to look at this ocean.

Encountering Vastness

This house has a great view of the water, which seems a common selling point in places people vacation. When we want to get away from the day to day, we so often go to the ocean, or the mountains, or large national parks. Why is that?

The ocean is vast, enormous, powerful, untamed, uncontrolled. It is bigger than me. It was here before me, and will be here millennia after me. Compared to the ocean, I am completely insignificant. To the mountain, I am just another insect - one of countless who stared at its peak or died on its slopes.

This seems a bit sad and depressing, of course. But, if I am insignificant, then the following must also be true: my problems are insignificant. If I am an insect that lives for milliseconds of eternity, how meaningless are the worries that flash through that insect's mind?

Big Relief From Feeling Small

Perhaps that is why people are drawn to vastness, make pilgrimages to stare at the mountains or the ocean. Mankind was gifted a spark of divine awareness no other creature possesses. Faith says this spark is the Spirit of God[1]. It is a great blessing, but also a great burden. We are powerful enough to understand how powerless we are.

There is a security in focusing on something bigger, something greater than we are. We are not the pinnacle of creation, the fate of all we know does not lie in our flawed mortal hands. We are drawn to the great and the infinite because deep inside we all have a piece of eternity within us[2], and we strive to understand ourselves in the context of that eternity.

Seeking Awe

We stare at the mountain, because if the mountain exists, then there are forces great enough to have created the mountain. We stare at the stars because an infinite, ever-expanding universe offers the kind of hope and possibility the most elaborate temple or museum never can. We stare at the sea, because it is a living and breathing organism that holds whole worlds in its depths.

Ancient people worshipped the sun, or the wind, or strong animals, or the elements. They craved the comfort of knowing there was Something Bigger, and they hoped the Something Bigger might be convinced to be on their side. They were seeking the same truth, but their aperture was a little too narrow, and their faith was a little too small.

Generations of seeking, studying, and listening have brought us a little closer to the truth. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah spoke of a vast and powerful God: “[He] gauged the skies with a span, and meted the earth’s dust with a measure, and weighed the mountains with a scale…[3]”

Jesus described this God as loving and caring for each individual human. “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows.[4]”

I can try to ignore this greater truth, claim the mountain is an infinite accident, and we flies buzzing around its base are greater accidents still. Perhaps God laughs at the whim of the creative insect who tries to explain away life's most amazing truth. Or perhaps He weeps.

Bigger Than the Ocean

If I look a little closer at the mountain, listen more closely to the waves, there is a greater lesson than the humility of my insignificance. There is a greater truth than the vastness of the sea. Our greatest ocean is a drop within the cosmos, our tallest mountain a grain of sand. And the universe is expanding every second. The realm of material things is only a shadow of something even greater.

Reality is more than infinite space and the physical universe - it includes other dimensions waiting to be explored. Each of us who has looked into the eyes of our child, or felt the embrace of a parent, known the comfort of a friend, or had our spirit moved knows that the universe is also a place of infinite love.

The greatest manifestation of the power of Something Bigger is not the mountain or the ocean or the stars. It is the expression of love and connection, the feeling of knowing another soul and being known. That exists on a level that defies time and distance. We even love things that no longer exist. The Song of Songs says, “Love is strong as death…[5]” It is impossible to measure or to weigh, but that doesn't make it any less real. The existence and persistence of love challenges us to understand the reality of our universe on a different plane.

The Christian scriptures make this bold proclamation: “God is love...[6]” The comforting vastness my heart seeks? That is God, who fills the universe. The purest moment of love I have ever felt? That is God breaking through to give me a glimpse of his world.

The Promise

That is what I see when I look at the ocean this morning. It is a reminder of my insignificance, but also a reminder of something so great that it renders the ocean insignificant. The vastness I see and hear feels like a message, only barely veiled, pointing to something greater than my senses can comprehend. And faith promises that Something, that Someone, is in my heart, and on my side.

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[1] Genesis 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” (JPS Tanakh 1985) Key Idea: God’s own breath (“nishmat chayyim”) animates humanity—implying an intimate, divine presence within.

[2] “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[3] Isaiah 40:12 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (JPS 1985)

[4] ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭10‬:‭29‬-‭31‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[5] Song of Songs 8:6 (Tanakh / Old Testament)

[6] 1 John 4:8