I’ve been home for a few days now from a trip to the beach. As per my usual, I get up well before dawn each morning and make my way down to the beach for a 2 or 3 hour walk. The beach is usually empty in those wee hours except for me and my three companions…..Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I never feel quite so alive, wild, and free as I do in those moments. It thrills my spirit to be so connected and loved inside my God while light begins to dispel the darkness and the world around me takes shape.

Once the sun begins to shoot tender colors above the horizon, I begin my other longtime habit…..looking for treasures that God, through the previous tide, has left on the beach to be discovered. I was particularly aware on this trip of how my beachcombing has changed over the years. I’ve always asked God to leave surprises for me – sometimes I’ve asked for particular items and sometimes I have just left it up to Him. That part hasn’t changed. In years past though, I have been somewhat stressed out that I wouldn’t find what I had asked for. As I walked the beach I would worry that I was walking in the wrong places and was missing what He had left for me.

The last couple of years, and most strikingly on this trip, I found that I don’t worry any more about finding my surprises. I don’t scour the beach in search of treasure. I ask, and I walk, but I know that He will find me. The above picture is an example of His seeking me out and delighting me in response to a request. I had asked Him for a large sand dollar two days prior on a different beach. I didn’t find one. On my last morning walk with Him, I was only focused on being in His presence and reveling in that joy. I stopped for a moment, looked down, and that large perfect sand dollar was lying there. There were no other shells around to be seen. Boom! He came to me. I was captivated and swept up in the majesty of extravagant love and tenderness. I was undone by love.

My beachcombing sets the stage for a powerful lesson in our journey of faith with the Three Constant Companions. We walk, we learn, we stumble, we grow, we doubt, we ask for things, we have breakthroughs, we get mad, we run away, and we come home. Through the whole process of following Jesus though, I think we are wandering up and down our metaphorical beaches striving to find treasure. We tend to make it an awful lot about our own striving and effort and little about Him. We have this notion that He is hard to find and we will only find Him if we take just the perfect path, say just the perfect words, and do just the perfect things. How small we make our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Here is the truth of the matter of how we find Him, our Treasure (and how I found that lovely sand dollar)……..

Set your mind on Him and set your heart on Him. All the time. What does that mean? Think on the lovely things with your mind and your heart….goodness, kindness, love, gratitude, tenderness, forgiveness. See Him in all. Look and hear with the eyes and ears of your heart. Be genuine. Be transparent. Be all the things the world tells you to protect yourself from.

That’s it. Stop striving to reach some unattainable standard that man created through religion and let Him find you. He always does. It is His favorite thing to do. He wants to drop treasure right at your feet when you aren’t even looking for it. He wants to knock your socks off with a love that will pierce the depths of your heart. Let Him find you. Let Him love you. Let Him create you.

You can certainly strive all day long and beachcomb until the sun goes down to find the Prize. You can make it all about you. Or you can just walk calmly and casually….maybe just a gentle stroll with your hands in your pockets and your eyes wide open….and let Him find you. He will meet you where you are, wrap you up in safe and tender love, and change the way you seek forever.