Walking along southern California’s Silver Strand, a body surfer emerges from the waves and approaches my cousin and me.

“Hey, hey, you guys I gotta tell you something,” the young man said a bit winded from being tossed up on shore.

He continues to tell us the story he so eagerly wanted to share. He had been to the grocery store the night before and had seen lobsters in the tank for sale. He explained in a way that I could only describe as mesmerized. He inquired about the lobster, but didn’t understand why he was so taken with them.

As he surfed, he dived into a wave and there at the bottom of the ocean, was a lobster. He said, “I could have just reached out and grabbed it.” Lobsters don’t belong in the surf near a sandy beach, they live in the rocky ocean bottoms, he continued to explain.

We agreed that was odd for a lobster to be this close to a beach in the open surf.

He turned to walk away and then paused and looked back at us and asked, “Do you believe in God?” “Yes,” I responded. And he gave me a thumbs up and left.

I’m not sure what that meant to him, but I do know he saw God that day in the surf. He acknowledged His presence, and His reign over His creatures. That surfer stood on the shore in awe of The Lord.

The ocean always leaves me in awe of God. It’s powerful waves crashing on the beach, rearranging the sand, smoothing it like glass. Each wave depositing some of its treasures and reclaiming others.

I stand dwarfed at it’s shores, like being in a grand cathedral with it’s great walls and it’s spiraling towers. I am reminded of God’s awesomeness and my insignificance.

Like the surfer, I’m paying attention, I’m in awed adoration.