it matters

I remember years ago standing on the deck of a cruise ship watching the trail of that giant boat disappear off into the horizon. A little boy walked up, stood next to me for about thirty seconds then said, "That sure is a lot of gallons of water." I thought it was cute and very simple, but he was right. He took his swimmies and walked away.

The rain has finally let up here in south Florida. The TV said it was the biggest rain they'd had here in years. I believe it. A quick trip to the grocery store yesterday turned into a real adventure, and I know I drove through water I'd scold my kids for attempting. The bridges on and off the island were closed so I couldn't go far. Cars were stranded everywhere, and the folks who live here were looking scared. I don't know why I felt so invincible. I survived though and made it back to the room with not so much as a melted Popsicle.

I was able to stroll on the beach for a couple of hours before the sun went down last night. It was gorgeous and peaceful and serene to watch that big, bright yellow ball settle on top of the water before it finally vanished. You could still see its reflection in the clouds for quite a while after though. All the rain made it easy for the birds to pick out whatever they wanted to eat. There was just no room in the sand for the bugs AND the water. The Gulf was as magic as ever. I took lots of pictures.

That's when the little boy's wise words came back to me. If you could measure it, I wonder how many gallons of water there are out there. I can't imagine how many we can actually see, much less how much is beyond the horizon or underneath the top part. Then I started thinking about the sand. That's a lot of gallons of sand too. The beach I'm on is also filled with millions of billions of shells. Of course that's just a guess. There are more than anyone can count though I'm sure. Then that reminded me of a story I used to hear my favorite pastor, Rex Hudson, tell.

A boy walked out on the beach one morning to find thousands of starfish stranded in the sand. He felt compelled to do something, so he picked one up and threw it back into the sea, then another, and another. He was doing all he could to save as many of the helpless creatures as he possibly could. A man strolled by and asked the boy what he was doing. "I'm trying to save the starfish," he said. "There are too many," the man replied. "There's no way you can save them all. What does it matter?" The little boy picked up a starfish, tossed it into the water and said, "It matters to that one."