Bits of Glass

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from the sea. It can be unstable, powerful, destructive, constant, untamed and also likened in scripture to the voice of God. Maybe the awe we feel for the unfettered might of the ocean is a taste of the awe we should feel for the might of God.

There isn’t anything particularly wonderful about the Galveston beach if you compare it to other beaches in the world. The sand is gray, not white, the shells are all small and mostly broken, the waves are small and gentle compared to say, the California coast. But it is special all the same. I had given up searching for pretty shells that were unbroken by the churning about on the bottom of the Gulf. They are just too hard to find. Then I remembered a book about sea glass that I had read a few months ago and once again turned my eye down to see if I could find a piece of real sea glass.

Sea glass, if you are going to get technical, only becomes sea glass (as opposed to the regular broken- bottle variety of glass) when it has been chunked about enough in the water and sand that all the sharp edges are gone, the smooth shiny surfaces are buffed up and look “frosted”, or if something else strange and destructive has happened to it, like melting. I thought how cool it would be to find a piece of perfect bottle green sea glass, just sitting there waiting for me to discover. The first piece I found however was beer-bottle brown. The wonderful thing about sea glass, though, is that it really doesn’t matter what the glass was in its former life, no matter how mundane or unsavory, when it is remade by the waves and sand, it is unique and beautiful. Shells loose some of there beauty when they are broken and damaged, glass just gets prettier. So I picked up that small brown sliver and rolled it about in my hand as I continued to search for another piece.

The first piece of green glass caught my eye as the sun glinted off of it. It wasn’t technically sea glass yet. The edges were chipped and the surface was scratched, and though it was beautiful, it really wasn’t finished yet. I held on to it for a little while though. It reminded me of myself, a little broken and battered, but not yet fully remade.

I found several more pieces, a few more browns of various shades and sizes, a couple of greens (that were real sea glass) and two white pieces. I had told God as I looked how much I would like to find a green, and I found a green, then I told him how much I would like to find some white glass, and then I found some white glass, so then I told him how much I would like to find some blue glass, but I never found any, at least not that day. I’m not done looking, though, and I’m not done asking. I have a feeling there is a piece of blue glass out there, waiting for me to find it. Maybe it’s just not ready yet.

You can learn a lot from the sea, if you take the time to listen.