FLEEING THE TEMPTER

 In 2009, I went to the beach twice.  For most of you, they may not seem that much.  For me, I do not care too much for the beach.  I have been to the Atlantic Ocean beach at St. Augustine, Florida.  I have been to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas.  I waded in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach in Southern California.

Last month I went Destin, Florida with a couple that hosted me for an On Mission Celebration in Covington Association.  We walked on the beach, and I visited two beach weddings.  I was getting ideas knowing I would do one within two weeks.  When I did the wedding at Gulf Shores, I went in the Gulf ankle deep to say I have been in the Gulf.

I am not a beach person, but I have been to Gulf Shores many times visiting friends that visited Gulf Shores each year the week after Christmas.  On one of those visits, I wrote a poem and I thought I would share it with everyone since June is Father’s Day month.

 

FLEEING THE TEMPTER

 

A seagull chases a killdee* up and down, round and round.

As long as the killdee flees, the seagull cannot catch it.

So, in its illusiveness they race just inches above the crashing and roaring waves.

 

Children are playing in the sand, some tiptoe to the edge of the sea’s invitation to dive into its threshold.  In innocence, they laugh as they are chased by incoming waves away from the sea not realizing that they were under the watch of guardians.

 

Seagulls stand guard and await the seas invitation to dine upon its continual supply of refuse, trash, and skeletons of creatures fallen in the sea.  They no longer resist the seas invitation.  The temptation is too great for them and they feast.  People walk by them unnoticed as the seagulls focus on the sea’s roar calling them to come and dine.

 

Some people walk along the shore at the waters edge slowly being seduced by the hypnotic voice of the deep, but quickly escaping the tempter’s snare they flee the cold chill of the rushing waves and continue walking briskly along the shore with no destination in mind.

 

They walk leaving their footprints upon the sands of time only to have them erased by the seas troubled waves.  Slowly they fade way leaving no evidence of the lives that have resisted the seas continual seduction.

 

The older generation sits and reflects upon the repeated temptation of the sea as it goes back and forth.  The motion reminds them of life’s restlessness that was before them and will continue long after they are gone.  They reminisce of childhood as children build sand castles in the shifting sand. 

 

They think of romantic yesterday as they watch two lovers embrace as the waves come crashing to shore.  They think of past passions as the sun is seduced and slowly enters into the sea.  In the seduction, the sun has lost its brilliant glow and now blushed as it kisses the sea.

 

Only moments before the sun’s flame had made the sky crystal clear, pure, and virgin blue sparkling like a beautiful diamond in the cold winter air.  The sun’s warmth penetrated the cold and warmed the air as they embraced.  The sand glistened as a bride dressed in white meeting her groom.

 

Suddenly, the seagull stops his pursuit and the killdee escapes while the seagull dives into the sea for its prey.

 

Bobby E. Hopper, December 29, 1999

Visiting friends in Gulf Shores, Alabama

 

* A killdee is a small bird with long legs that acts injured when it has young.

 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7 KJV).